


Daisuga Week 2017 Collection

by GhostFox



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 13:22:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostFox/pseuds/GhostFox
Summary: These are my works for Daisuga week 2017! Each chapter is a self contained story with different plots. This was a lot of fun (and quite stressful) to work on, so I hope you enjoy!





	1. Patchwork Family

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Staying in
> 
> Summary: Daichi and Suga’s romantic night out does not go to plan, but then again, with the life they live how could it?
> 
> ***
> 
> Take my hand in the meantime  
> And let's walk into the sunshine  
> Everybody got something that they want to sing about, laugh about, cry about  
> It's true  
> For me it's you
> 
> \- Train

The past year had not been a smooth ride, with twists and bumps and breaking points seeming to loom around every corner, but that made Suga’s steps all the more lighter on his way home. For the most part, they had made it, one whole year for better or for worse, and today was a testament to all they had been through. 

The road had been one neither of them could have imagined at that first meeting, that first glance of the cute guy on the cereal aisle with the baby strapped to his chest and the loudly singing little boy swinging his legs in the seat of the shopping cart, both with a head of hair fiery orange and lighting a flame in Suga’s heart that hadn’t let him smile in too long. But it wasn’t just him; the little blonde girl hiding behind his leg, still unsteady on her feet, and her older brother at his side, much too stoic for the four years he’d lived, had sensed it too. They knew that those three people were somehow important, somehow integral to their lives they hadn’t yet started living, even though they had no idea what was in store.

He remembers feeling tiny fingers tug at his jeans, tearing his eyes away from the man and down to meet navy blue, the boy opening his mouth to say “Uncle Koushi, that weird kid keeps looking at me,”, finger pointing right back to where he’d been staring. The other boy’s head swiveled around, orange curls rising and falling with the motion as he stuck his tongue out and crossed his arms over his chest. The baby girl mimicked him, blowing slobbery bubbles out of soft pink lips that dribbled down to the wet collar of her pink onesie.

Suga and the man made eye contact, and he could physically feel a void in his life filling as he blushed and apologized for his kids. He had never been one for love at first sight, or at least not any more, but that soft smile and hands that looked so rough but moved so gently when ruffling his son’s hair were enough to make him believe in anything. 

And he kept believing. From that day on he believed with everything he could, even when it felt like there was nothing to believe in, and that was what got them through. 

When he reaches the front door of the house he and Daichi had bought with every last penny the bank would toss their way, Suga’s heart feels two years lighter, like it had when they shared their first kiss under a bright summer sky with clothes soaked from the backyard hose and sticky handprints in popsicle red pressed to their legs. He can still taste the hint of wet grass on Daichi’s lips from little Natsu shoving a clump of it in his mouth. Nothing had ever tasted so sweet. 

He unlocks the door, rolling forward on the balls of his feet as it swings open, feeling like it’s taking far too long before final stepping in and calling out through a smile “I’m home!”

No one answers, which isn’t out of the ordinary. The kids are usually sitting down to dinner when Suga gets home, though today he’s sure Daichi would have fed them early before they had to be dropped off with the babysitter, so he makes his way toward the kitchen out of habit. 

The smell of something sweet hits his nose as he turns into the hallway, and a smile spreads on his face until another smell hits, something stronger and much less appealing. Turning the corner into the doorway he finds two tiny people instead of the one large one he was expecting, heads bent over a mixing bowl with determined looks on their faces. 

“Shouyou? Hitoka? What are you doing?” His words are careful, not wanting to come off as upset. 

Their heads whip up, smiling wide as Shouyou throws down the mixing spoon and they both run forward to grab one of his legs. “Daddy!”

Hitoka had always called Suga daddy, and it was only recently that it stopped breaking his heart. He remembers the numbness he felt when he had received the call telling him his sister and brother-in-law had been in a car accident, the first words he could spit out being ‘are the kids okay?’. Tobio was at school when it happened, and miraculously baby Hitoka in the backseat was completely unharmed. He drove two hours to the hospital wondering why tears wouldn’t form in his eyes, why his chest wouldn’t tighten, why he could still breathe. When he arrived a nurse placed Hitoka in his arms, her little chest hiccuping from crying for so long, big watery brown eyes rimmed in red looking up at him as if to ask where her mommy was and who all these people were. She wrapped a hand in the front of his shirt, breathing evening out as she relaxed, and said ‘dada’. That was when the tears came. That was when everything crashed down on him.

Suga was the kids’ closest living relative and their godfather despite hardly ever seeing them, and when the nurse asked if he’d consider adopting them there was no hesitation in his decision. It had been difficult, especially with Tobio hating him at first. He couldn’t blame him, though. He’d hate the person who picked him up from kindergarten and told him his parents were gone too. There were so many time when he wanted to give up, when he wanted to scream and cry because there was no way he could raise two kids on his own when one thought he was her dead father and the other wouldn’t even look at him, but he pushed through, and eventually he felt less like a failure and more like someone worthy of raising those kids.

Tobio eventually came to trust him, and Hitoka learned that Suga wasn’t her dad, though she continued to call him so since she could barely remember her own. And when Daichi came along with Shouyou and Natsu he realized everything was finally perfect.

“What’s in the bowl?” Suga asks, pulling himself back to the present and the smiling faces standing before him.

“We’re making you a cake for your wedding birthday!” Shouyou tells him, dragging him over to the mixing bowl to show off their creation. “We saw it on Dad’s food shows.” Suga smiles at Shouyou’s word for ‘anniversary’, not having the heart to correct him.

“I added the cherry juice,” Hitoka beams, holding up a bottle of red liquid, the smell suddenly making sense.

“Hitoka, sweetie, that isn’t cherry juice,” he says gently, taking the heavy bottle before it can slip out of her fingers. “It’s red wine vinegar.”

“Does it taste like cherries?” She asks, puzzled by how something red could possible be something other than cherry flavored.

“Nope. Here.” He opens the bottle and hold his finger over the top, getting just a taste on his fingertip and pressing it to each of their tongues, trying to quickly hide the smile on his face behind his hand.

“Blech!” They both stick their tongues back out, looking betrayed by both Suga and the rules of color and candy flavor coordination. 

Hitoka looks back towards the mixing bowl, a mixture of what looks to be mostly eggshells and cocoa powder, her eyes welling with tears. “Did I,” her bottom lip wobbles, “ruin your wedding birthday?”

Suga has her cradled in his arms before she can finish her sentence, pressing the tiny girl against him and trying to decide whether he feels like laughing or crying. “No, sweetie, of course not. Cakes are just tricky, even Dad can’t get them right with all those cooking shows he watches.”

“Yeah, his last one tasted like carrots,” Shouyou adds, patting his little sister on the back and sticking out his tongue as he remembers the flavor. 

“That was carrot cake, Shouyou,” Suga tells him.

“Well, carrot cake is a bad idea,” he shrugs.

Hitoka giggles against his chest, and Suga winks at Shouyou, thankful for the millionth time that he had been such a good brother to her, and to Tobio for that matter. The kids were all so different from each other, but they came together like real siblings, and he couldn't be happier. 

When Daichi and Suga first told the kids that they were getting married it was a disaster. They had expected as much, with Tobio still wary of getting close to new people and Shouyou always pushing his buttons for fun. Even Daichi had his doubts, fresh out of a divorce and still battling over custody and visitation rights with his ex wife. Their lives were messes filled with tiny hands to hold and too many hard truths to explain, and it seemed foolhardy to add more to their already overflowing plates. But they did, because of course they had to.The prospect of the family they have now was too good to pass up. 

“How about this weekend Dad and I help you bake another cake? Your brothers can help too, and we can even let Natsu try and stir. It’ll be a cake made by the whole family, how does that sound?”

Hitoka pulls back, looking up with eyes full of excitement and nodding. “Yeah! Can we get cherries for it?”

“If you promise to help me clean up this mess before Dad sees it. Where is he anyway?” Suga asks, realizing he hadn’t heard a sound from Daichi or the other two kids since coming home.

“Natsu made a big mess in the bathroom and he had to go clean it up,” Shouyou tells him, the width of his brown eyes telling Suga that by ‘big mess’ he means ‘absolute disaster’.

“I should go check on them. Shouyou, could you help your sister start putting the ingredients away? I’ll come back to help with the dishes.”

“Don’t worry Daddy, we can do it,” he replies, probably suspecting that Suga wouldn’t be returning as soon as he thinks.

As he makes his way towards the bathroom Suga passes the open door of the boys’ bedroom, catching a glimpse of bright orange out of the corner of his eyes that stops him in his tracks. “Natsu?” He calls, stepping back and pushing the door open to see into the room.

Sitting in the middle of one of the beds is Natsu, completely still for what must be the first time since she learned how to crawl, and behind her is Tobio, legs crossed with a pair of scissors poised mid snip on a chunk of her hair.

“Tobio!” Suga yells, lunging forward to grab the scissors just as a lock of fire orange sprinkles onto the blanket. 

“I’m sorry!” The boy yells, leaping back and eyes widening.

“What are you doing with scissors? That’s dangerous!” Suga yells, careful to keep his voice stern but not frightening. “And why are you cutting Natsu’s hair?”

“She got gum in it,” Tobio answers, pointing to where a wad of gum still sticks to the baby’s head.

“Where did she get gum from?”

“I gave it to her.”

“Tobio, why on earth would you give your baby sister, who tries to swallow apple slices whole, gum?” Suga can feel a headache setting into his temple, the excitement of the day starting to become overshadowed with stress and too many messes.

“Dad asked me to watch her while he cleaned up the bathroom and I was blowing gum bubbles and she wanted to try.” 

“Tobio made big bubble!” Natsu adds, throwing her arms up and beaming at her brother.

Tobio looks on the verge of tears, almost certain he’s about to be punished, but Suga just sighs. “I know you’re trying to make her happy, but gum isn’t good for little ones. They can swallow it and choke, or get it stuck in their hair like Natsu did.”

Natsu looks back at Suga, holding her hands out for him to pick her up. He does, examining the mess in her hair and sighing again. “Don’t worry, Daddy,” she says, much less excited than before after seeing the worry on her brother’s face. “Tobio fixed it.”

“Yup, he gave you a new haircut. We’re going to have to cut it a little more after we get all the gum out though,” he tells her, smiling softly as she nods and turning back to Tobio. “Make sure you ask either me or Dad next time you want to give her something, okay?.”

Tobio nods, sitting up and no longer looking afraid. “Do we have to shave her head?”

“No, there are other ways to get gum out of hair without cutting it. We’ll have to trim some to make it even with what you cut, though.”

“I’m sorry, Uncle Koushi,” Tobio apologizes, looking to the side instead of at Suga’s face. 

“Don’t worry. Let’s just be happy no one got hurt.”

“What’s all the yelling in here?” Suga turns around to find Daichi standing in the doorway, shirt soaked against his skin and soap suds popping in his hair. Suga beams despite the stress he feels, stepping forward to kiss Daichi on the cheek. “I didn’t hear you come in, I was busy with...with the bathroom,” he sighs, looking as if he wants to describe the mess but also doesn’t want to think about it ever again.

“I heard you have your hands full in there. Is everything okay?” Suga asks, worried at the tiredness he can see in Daichi’s eyes and the tension in his shoulders.

“It’s not the worse that can happen in a bathroom, but I’m nowhere near being finished,” Daichi says, leaning forward and dropping his head onto Suga’s shoulder opposite of where Natsu has begun chewing on his shirt. “I’m glad you’re home.”

“Me too,” Suga whispers, reaching a hand up to stroke Daichi’s sudsy hair. “Here, why don't you take Natsu and go call the sitter? I’ll go deal with whatever's going on in the bathroom.”

“Are you sure?” Daichi asks, lifting Natsu from his arms and immediately frowning at the mess in her hair. “What the-,”

“Don’t worry about that right now. We have dinner reservations in two hours, so until then you’re going to relax and get all pretty so I can show you off to all the other couples in the restaurant. Dad duties can wait until tomorrow.”

Daichi nods, tiredness permeating his gaze as he smiles lightly and kisses Suga quickly on the lips before turning down the hallway. Sometimes Suga feels guilty with the arrangement of their household, with him working days at a boring office job while Daichi keeps the girls and takes the boys to and from school until the evening when he gets home and Daichi can work for a few hours, often late into the night, from home in his study. It’s worked fine for them so far, and Daichi has never admitted problems with it if he had any, but it still weighs on Suga’s mind. At least he gets to get out of the house during the days, while Daichi stays in even when he’s not working. That’s why tonight has to be special, to make sure Daichi knows how much he appreciates everything he’s sacrificed for their family. 

Stepping into the bathroom, Suga almost slips and falls as soon as he touches the tile, shoe sliding forward as he grabs for the cabinet corner to catch himself. Looking down he finds his shoe in the middle of a puddle of pink soap, surrounded by various oozing piles of body wash and shampoos.

“Oh no,” Suga whispers, eyes darting to the trash beside the toilet overflowing with empty soap bottles. He can’t help but laugh at the thought of two year old Natsu opening each bottle in the bathtub and squeezing them all out onto the floor. He has no ideas where to even begin, reaching for the mop leaning against the sink that’s so full of bubbles it probably won’t be of any use at all. With a sigh he walks forward as well as he can without slipping to his death and starts to fill the tub with water, washing the suds out of the mop head.

He’s rinsed the mop out four times when Daichi comes to the door, the look on his face stopping Suga dead in his tracks.

“What’s wrong?” He asks, feeling his heart speed up as a million scenarios of what could cause that look run through his head.

“It’s Asahi,” Daichi answers, and Suga let’s out a small breath of relief that the kids are all okay. “He can’t sit for us tonight, and no one else can cancel their plans on such short notice.”

“Oh,” Suga breathes, heart falling but trying not to show it as he runs a wet and soapy hand across his forehead. “That’s okay. Maybe we can go out this weekend instead.”

“Koushi, we’ve had those reservations for a month. There’s no way we can get more for two days from now.”

“Well, it can’t be helped right now. There’s no use being upset about it,” Suga tells him despite being completely disappointed himself.

“No use being upset? I’ve been looking forward to this for  _ weeks _ ,” Daichi says, his voice sounded betrayed, as if the night meant nothing to Suga and he was fine just brushing it off. “I’ve been trying my hardest all damn day to keep this house clean and keep the kids occupied even though everything seemed to be going wrong because I couldn’t wait for you to come home so we could _ finally  _ get some time together.”

“I know,” Suga whispers, dropping the mop and carefully stepping forward to cup Daichi’s face in his soapy hands. “I know, and I’ve been looking forward to it too. I’m not going to lie, I’m upset that we can’t go. I feel like I’ve barely seen you since we got married, definitely not enough to feel like we’ve been married for a whole year. If it’s not adoption papers and court dates its vinegar cake batter and shampoo covered bathrooms.”

Daichi looks confused at the cake batter part, but Suga just shakes his head and continues. “Despite all of that though, this is what we signed up for. When I agreed to marry you it wasn’t only you I wanted. It was all of this, every single part of the life we have. That’s what my vows were for; to love you, to love our children, and to love our family no matter what. And if that means staying in on our anniversary to rub mayonnaise and peanut butter in Natsu’s hair and mop the bathroom fifteen times then so be it.”

Tears Suga didn’t notice welling in his eyes slip silently down his cheeks, realizing how true everything he just said is. There were times in the past two years since meeting Daichi that he was convinced he couldn’t handle where they were going and almost gave up, and those instances had doubled in the past year after getting married. He had been thrust into parenthood almost violently, the role crashing down on his shoulders in the form of loss and two sets of bright and frightened eyes looking to him for care, and he had never imagined in that moment that shortly after he would commit to doubling the size of his responsibilities. He never regretted it though, still regarding the days that he signed the adoption papers for Tobio, Hitoka, Natsu, and Shouyou some of the happiest of his life, equal only to when he vowed his life and love to Daichi and their family on an altar before everyone they knew. 

Daichi places his hands over Suga’s against his cheeks and leans forward, pressing their foreheads together and closing his eyes. “You’re too good to me, you know that? You make me feel like the luckiest man alive every single day.”

“Because you are,” Suga smiles, closing his eyes too and letting darkness settle over their little stolen moment. “We both are.”

Life is tough, Suga knows that much. He’d learned that much in far too short a time, but he also knows that life is beautiful, he just couldn’t tell until his view of the world was complete. And now, spending his first wedding anniversary in his own home with his wonderful husband and four beautiful children, baking a cherry chocolate cake he knows it more than ever. 

Maybe it’s the way they have to keep Natsu from shoving an entire arm in the batter, or having to sift for shards of eggshell as Shouyou and Tobio argue over how to properly crack open an egg and smashing them straight into the bowl, or maybe it’s the smile on Hitoka’s face as Daichi draws chocolate batter stars on each of her cheeks, but somewhere along the way Suga starts to wonder whether staying in tonight was a blessing in disguise. These moments spent together are so much better than anything a fancy restaurant and a movie could have to offer, and Suga wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

He could never regret a single moment spent here, spent with them, no matter how many scraped knees and bruises they got along the way. He may have never chosen to be a father, never expected to be a husband, but sometimes fate finds you, even when you’ve stopped believing. 


	2. Bloom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Magic/Space
> 
> Summary: Space is vast and beautiful, but even intergalactic space wizards get homesick.
> 
> ***
> 
> All I've got's  
> This little window  
> Never lets me  
> See too much  
> I bet the leaves are changing  
> There again  
> The solar winds  
> To zero kelvin  
> I'm hurdling  
> And pressurized  
> If only I could  
> Get a breath of you
> 
> \- Ludo

“You know what I miss?” Suga turns, tearing his gaze away from the window he’d been staring out of to look at Daichi. “Flowers. I never really appreciated them back home, but now that we’re stuck up here I just want to smell some flowers.”

“We’re not stuck up here. You signed up for this, remember?” Daichi says, looking back down at the log book open in the table before him next to the plastic bags of rocks. 

“I remember you begging me to sign up with you,” he smirks, hopping down from his seat and walking over to the table, nothing but mischief in his eyes. “Oh, Suga,  _ please _ . We could sign up together and get our own ship! We could travel the stars and see everything the universe has to offer! Remember that?”

“Oh, hush. You were excited too,” Daichi waves him off, trying to get back to work but knowing he won’t be able to focus again. “Besides, space is cooler than flowers anyway.”

“I guess so,” Suga sighs, sitting in the chair to Daichi’s side and absentmindedly playing with the bags of rocks. He’s messing up Daichi’s organization, but he doesn’t try to stop him. “I just expected...more. Searching for intergalactic spellcasting materials sounded so cool, but really all we’re doing is collecting space rocks.”

It’s true, what Suga said. Daichi was excited at the prospect of going to space when their coven posted the recruitment papers on the wall. He had always dreamed of it, seeing the stars and planets and finding things that no human had touched before. He wanted adventure in a place bigger than comprehension, and the thought of bringing Suga with him made everything seem even more perfect. His first glimpse of home after launching was like a dream, finally knowing what the stars saw when they looked down on him. Sure, it hasn’t been as eventful of a mission as he had expected, but he’s happy. 

Daichi reaches for another bag, not sure exactly what to say to Suga to cheer him up. He starts to fill out the label for the log book, noticing the dull green light emanating from the stone, when an idea pops in his head.

“Remember this one? We almost passed right over it, but it’s the most powerful stone we’ve found so far.”

Suga turns, chin resting in his palms and expression unamused as he eyes the green stone. “I remember you nearly getting eaten by a sandworm.”

“Exactly. Wasn’t that the type of thrill you came for?” Daichi can still feel the worm’s teeth clamping around the arm of his suit as he reached into it’s mouth to grab the stone it had tried to eat, thick translucent purple goo all the way up to his shoulder. If it weren’t for Suga pulling him out and casting a flame spell down the worm’s throat Daichi might have lost his arm, but laying together in the sand, covered in purple goo from the exploded worm, panting from the adrenaline rush, was one of the best moments of his life.

“To watch you get eaten? Yeah, that’s definitely what I came for. But you lived,” he shrugs, a smirk peeking through his bored expression. Daichi considers that a win. 

“I’ll try not to live next time,” he chuckles. 

Suga sighs, leaning forward to rest his chin on the table. “Sorry. I’m not trying to be grumpy, I just miss home, I guess. It’ll pass.”

“We won’t be up here too much longer,” Daichi tells him, hoping his words can comfort him. “I wish we had something more substantial to bring home though. Other than the green stone none of these will cast anything more than second tier spells.”

“Maybe the other groups are doing better than us,” Suga shrugs, pushing his chair out and standing back up, restless. “Maybe we just got sent on the boring route.”

“At least we’re together, right?” Daichi feels his cheeks flare up at his own words. He always blushes when he says something like that to Suga, no matter how long they’d known each other and no matter how many times he’s said them. 

“You’re sweet,” Suga replies, giving him a quick halfhearted smile before returning to his perch near the window and leaning his head against the glass.

Daichi sighs and closes the log book, rubbing his tired eyes and trying to ignore how powerless he feels. He can’t stand seeing Suga sad, especially when he can’t do anything to fix it. He gathers the plastic bags from the table, stuffing them all into his arms and carrying them back to the cabinets they’re stored in. He tries not to drop them, but one slips beneath his arm, falling with a dull thud against the floor. The dull emerald green gleams at him from inside the bag, as if calling him forward, and suddenly he knows exactly what to do.

Pulling the stone from the bag he can feel it’s energy fill his palm, spreading through him like a warm breeze. Perfect, he thinks, an earth element stone is exactly what he needs.

As he steps back into the main room Suga doesn’t look up, eyes trained on the stars outside but his reflection showing a distance in his eyes that goes much farther than the space around them. Daichi tries to make as little noise as he can, setting the stone in the middle of the floor and positioning himself cross legged behind it. He’d done spells like this before, but never with such a powerful casting stone.

He places his hands over the stone, picturing the spell as clear as he can in his mind, and letting his own energy flow into the stone, pushing the elemental energy out. It goes slowly at first, just a few patches of thin grass sprouting between the squares of linoleum, but suddenly the power seems to rush out like a dam had burst, shooting out vines and thick brush that crawls up the sides of the walls and hang from the ceiling.

Suga turns around suddenly, eyes wide as he takes in the scene around him, all of the different shades of green reflecting in his eyes. “Daichi, what are you-,”

“Hold on,” he interrupts, feeling the elemental energy start to reach it’s limit. “One more thing.” With one last burst of energy Daichi watches as green buds sprout along the vines and in the bushes, and suddenly, instantaneously, they all bloom. The room is filled with colors; pinks, whites, purples, blues, his nose filling with scents he could never imagine, intoxicatingly sweet.

“Well, what do you think?” He looks up at Suga, smiling despite how tired he feels from performing the spell.

“Daichi,” is all Suga manages to say, his eyes filling with tears as he looks around in wonder before dropping to his knees beside Daichi and practically attacking him. Suga’s hands are in his hair, then they’re trailing down his face and chest. He can barely keep track with his lips moving so frantically and fogging his brain even more. When he finally pulls away Daichi is breathless, panting and pulling leaves from his mouth that got tangled in their embrace.

“You used up our best space rock."

"I'll use them all up if it makes you kiss me like that again," Daichi smirks, lifting a hand to run his fingers through Suga's silver hair. It had always reminded him of starlight; maybe that's why he fell in love so quickly. "You wanted flowers. This is the best I could do."

"They're perfect. You're perfect," Suga beams, leaning forward to kiss him again. Softer this time, smiling against Daichi's lips more than kissing him. Those were Daichi's favorite kind of kisses. 

"So I guess space isn't all that bad then?" Daichi asks, leaning forward to rest his head on Suga's shoulder, his exhaustion starting to get to him. 

"No, space is still boring. But I love you, and anywhere you are is where I want to be."

Daichi's heart soars, and he wonders if he'll ever get over that first confession feeling  every time he hears those words. He hopes not. 

They stay there, Daichi lying in the grass and dozing lightly as Suga tucks different colored flowers into his hair, as the universe passes them by just outside the window. Around them is nothing but stars and vast empty spaces, miles and miles of cold beautiful nothingness, but tucked in their little piece of warmth amongst the void they have life. They have gentle touches and whispered words of love, they have stolen kisses and lips that taste of flower petals, and Daichi has his star, one that burns brighter than any the galaxy has to offer. 

  
  



	3. Ferris Wheel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Shy/Bold
> 
> Summary: Daichi finally landed his dream date, but everything feels too perfect to be true.
> 
> ***
> 
> Half of my heart's got a real good imagination  
> Half of my heart's got you  
> Half of my heart's got a right mind to tell you  
> That half of my heart won't do
> 
> \- John Mayer

Maybe the single long-stemmed red rose is too much. And maybe the entire bouquet of them Daichi bought just in case is also too much. Maybe it’s all too much; the slicked back hair, the cologne, the tucked in dress shirt and thin black tie. He feels like a walking cliché, fresh out of a cheesy romance movie plot, except he’s the boring guy who comes along in the first act just to get thrown away when the cool bad boy ex boyfriend rides back into town on his shiny motorcycle with his sleeve tattoos and crooked smile. 

God, what is he even thinking? Daichi shakes his head, trying to clear it both of his insecurity and the bad movie plot. This was going to be fine. Suga had seemed pretty excited about the date, after all, so that must count for something. 

He had planned it for weeks, always losing courage just at the last moment and convincing himself that the time wasn’t right or the mood was off. When it finally happened nothing went according to plan. Suga had grabbed Daichi in the courtyard just after one of his boring math lectures, practically buzzing with excitement over a midterm grade and dragging him toward the food court for lunch. Daichi was in a daze the entire time, entranced with Suga’s smile and the light in his eyes and he rambled on animatedly about whatever popped into his mind, sunshine seeming to emanate from every part of him. It was in the middle of lunch, after Suga pointed at him with a noodle covered fork asking if he was going to eat his food or just keep staring at it, when the words slipped out of his mouth. Well, more like burst out of his mouth. He’s not even sure of exactly what he said, only knowing that the words ‘go’, ‘date’, and ‘with me’, were involved somewhere. 

They’d been best friends for as long as Daichi could remember, Suga right by his side since grade school, and he’s still not sure exactly at what point he’d started looking at him differently. They had always been completely open with each other, and Daichi knew he could talk to Suga about anything, but his feelings for him were a completely different matter. Any time he thought about it, about being something more than Suga’s best friend, he clammed up, unable to speak and acting like a little boy with his first crush. Not too far off of an analogy, he thinks. It’s his first crush that matters.

Suga was nowhere near as reserved, no matter what people assumed when first meeting them. Daichi was always pegged at the loud commanding type, and Suga the sweet shy angel, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Suga is an angel, yes, but the kind that has shiny horns hidden beneath his halo and a spaded tail tucked under his robes. And Daichi definitely has some authoritative qualities to him, but when it comes to Suga it’s like his bones are made of jelly and his heart made of glass. 

Suga’s horns definitely showed through in the look he gave Daichi over the aluminum lunch table between them after Daichi’s sudden attempt at courtship. He smirked, popping another bite of yakisoba in his mouth and chewing carefully, knowing how excruciating every passing second was for Daichi. He wiped his mouth carefully with a napkin, spreading it flat against the tabletop, the smirk never leaving his face, before finally looking back up. 

“It’s about time, don’t you think?”

That’s all he said, six completely indecipherable words still ringing in Daichi’s head as he takes the porch steps in front of Suga’s house one at a time, stopping in front of the door and taking a deep breath. The roses are still in his hand, and he grips the plastic wrappings tighter as he reaches for the doorbell, a thorn slipping through and pricking his finger.

“Ah, shit,” he hisses, staring down at the tiny slit dewing with blood and bringing the finger to his mouth. He knew the roses were too much, and this is definitely a sign. Without thinking he tosses them into one of the bushes lining the walkway and turns back to ring the doorbell before he can find something else to distract him. 

Suga practically throws the door open, stepping out on the porch and frowning as his eyes travel up and down Daichi, sending a colt feeling straight through his chest. “I thought we were going to a carnival.”

“We are,” Daichi answers, his cheeks heating up as his eyes travel over Suga, somehow looking even more beautiful than usual in his thin powder blue shirt underneath a casual brown leather jacket. 

“You look like we’re on our way to that restaurant downtown that sells gold leaf flecked caviar,” he chuckles, reaching out to smooth a hand over Daichi’s tie. “I mean, you look great, but if we’re having a fashion show I’m going to need at least another half hour.”

“I guess I got a little...overzealous,” Daichi chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck and deciding that throwing the roses away was a good decision. 

“Here, let me help you.” Suga tugs on Daichi’s tie, pulling his head forward so he can start to undo the knot. Daichi gulps as his slender fingers brush against his adam’s apple, trying to ignore how close their faces are. When the tie is off Suga goes for his belt, pulling his shirt out from beneath it and letting the ends lay flat over his jeans.

“Better?” Daichi asks, holding his arms out to the side as Suga steps back to examine his handiwork.

“One last touch,” he replies, taking Daichi’s arm in his hand and unbuttoning the cuff. He rolls the shirtsleeves up to his elbows, his folds quick and expertly smooth. He does the other the same, and when he lets Daichi’s arms fall back to his sides he misses the feeling of Suga’s hands against his skin. “There. All done.”

Suga opens the door behind him and tosses Daichi’s tie inside, shutting it and turning back to him with a smile. “Shall we?”

“Yeah,” Daichi says, smiling despite his nerves because he never could've imagined he’d be standing here. Never could’ve managed that after years of looking at Suga like he was the sun itself, he’d be standing on his front porch, picking him up for a  _ date _ . It’s almost surreal, like he’s living a dream. 

That is, until Suga pokes him in the ribs, popping his bubble and bringing him back to the present. “Hey, anyone home? Are we gonna go or are you just gonna keep staring at me all night? I mean, I know I look good, but maybe the drool is a little much.”

“I’m not drooling,” Daichi says, embarrassed.

“Nope, but now you’re blushing,” Suga winks, stepping forward and linking his arm with Daichi’s, spreading warmth against his side. “You’re so easy to mess with.”

“You really do, though.”

“Do what?”

“Look good.”

It’s Suga’s turn to blush, ducking his head so Daichi can’t see. “Shut up. So do you.”

Daichi’s chest swells, the feeling staying with him as they walk the short two blocks to the street carnival, chatting easily the entire way. They’d been to the carnival together countless times, waiting every year for fall to roll around and for the trucks to return to town toting unstable looking metal contraptions and brightly colored food booths, but never as a couple. Not that they are a couple, but the connotation has definitely changed, and suddenly the rows of giant teddy bears and tiny ferris wheel seats seem like a minefield of overused romance plots that Daichi can’t decide whether he wants to launch into or avoid at all costs. 

Suga has no such reservations, quickly threading his fingers through Daichi’s and dragging him from attraction to attraction. They share an oversized platter of french fries and a milkshake with two straws, Daichi careful not to let his fingers awkwardly brush against Suga’s while reaching for fries; they ride the ferris wheel, so close on the seat that their thighs touch, and Daichi wonders if Suga has ever looked more beautiful than in that moment, staring excitedly over the edge with a backdrop of inky blue sky and pointing out various things around their town he can see form so high up. By the end of the night Suga even has a ridiculously overstuffed teddy bear tucked under one arm that Daichi spent more money than he’d care to admit on the ring toss game to win. 

The night is practically perfect, better than anything Daichi could’ve imagined, but it’s permeated by a sense of worry. Every time they brush hands or shoulders, every time he gets lost in Suga’s smile or birdsong laugh, every time he blurts out a compliment or quickly swipes a lock of silver hair out of Suga’s face, Daichi is afraid that he’s pushing things. He’s lucky enough to have gotten Suga to accept the date, he doesn’t need to go around messing everything up by being too forward. 

So he holds back, no matter how tempting it is to just reach out and kiss him every time Suga says something sweet or snarky, or smiles in that way only Suga can where he looks both cute and incredibly mischievous at the same time. Daichi feels like he might explode by the time they’re walking back up Suga’s street, feeling like the night was much too short.

“What do you think I should name him?” Suga asks, holding the bear out in front of him as the turn the corner onto his front walkway.

“I don’t know any good bear names,” Daichi answers, looking it over and shrugging. “Call him Kuma-chan.”

“Ugh. That’s so boring, he need’s a really cool name,” Suga says, sticking his tongue out to show how much he dislikes the suggestion. “What about Bearchi? He kind of looks like you.”

Daichi stops in the middle of the walkway, mouth falling open in mock offense. “He does not!”

“Yes he does,” Suga replies, stopping and turning to face Daichi while holding the bear up in front of his face. “Just look at those big pretty brown eyes and those thick thighs.”

Daichi’s face flares up so hot he’s sure Suga can probably feel it from where he’s standing. He opens his mouth to reply, but Suga saves him the trouble, dropping his arms back down and turning toward the bushes with a curious look. 

“What’s that?”

_ Oh no. _

Suga takes a step over to the bush, reaching and arm in and pulling out the bouquet of roses. He turns back with a surprised expression, one silver eyebrow arched as his eyes lock with Daichi’s.

“Uh, surprise,” Daichi mutters, looking down at his and anywhere else but Suga’s face. 

“What did I do?” Suga asks, voice even and serious, and Daichi’s eyes fly to his face, finding it devoid of all of his previous cheer and sarcasm. It’s an expression Daichi has only seen a few times, one he promised himself he’d never cause. 

“You didn’t do any-,” Daichi pauses, not sure how to respond. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been acting like you couldn’t wait to get away from me or something,” Suga says, his voice thick and sad, making Daichi feel as if the ground was pulled out from under him. “You pull back every time I touch you, you look away when I make eye contact, I thought for sure you’d kiss me on the ferris wheel but you barely even held my hand! I just don’t get it, do you like me or not?”

“Of course I do,” Daichi blurts, wondering how things turned so bad so quickly. “I...wait. You wanted me to kiss you?”

“Of course I did, you idiot! I thought that you’d finally realized it,” he huffs, looking as if he can’t comprehend how Daichi could be so dumb.

“Realized what?” Daichi asks, stepping back as a fire lights in Suga’s eyes. 

“Realized that I love you! That I’ve been in love with you since that day in fourth grade when you punched Terushima Yuuji in the nose for saying my drawing of a dog looked like a turtle! I thought maybe, just maybe, you’d finally caught up with me and realized you loved me too, and that you would kiss me on the dumb ferris wheel under the dumb stars and it would feel like a dumb romance movie!” He stops, eyes wide and panting. “I just thought that I could finally tell you all of this, not hide it, not yell it, and you’d say you felt the same.”

Daichi doesn’t speak, not sure if he remembers how, but as Suga gives one last sigh before turning to head the rest of the way up the walkway, words start to pour from his mouth. 

“I do love you, Suga,” he says, almost a whisper as he reaches out to grab Suga’s wrist before he can get too far away. “I can’t tell you the exact day it started, or even when I realized it, but I think I sort of always knew. I think I’ve always loved you, since the day I met you, I’m just too dumb to do anything about it.

“I kept pulling away because I was afraid, I was afraid I had tricked you into this or something, or if I moved too fast I’d scare you away. I wanted to kiss you on that ferris wheel, more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my entire life, but just being there with you, your hair shining like spun silver and smiling, like my own personal angel, was good enough for me.”

“Daichi…,”

“I wanted tonight to be perfect, because I wanted you to fall in love with me as much as I am with you.”

Suga looks on the brink of tears, crystal clear droplets clinging to long silver lashes, but instead of speaking he launches forward, toppling Daichi over into the bush. The branches are rough and jagged against his back, and his shirt may have ripped, but he doesn’t care. Suga’s lips are soft against his, still tasting of chocolate milkshake and cinnamon rolls, but his movements are rough, bear and roses abandoned on the ground as his hands cup Daichi’s face and tangle with his hair. Daichi kisses back ferociously, like if he doesn’t drink up every part of this right now he’ll lose it forever. His hands roam Suga’s back, trailing down to his waist and back up. 

He frowns when Suga pulls away, trying to stand back up out of the bush, cheeks tinged a bright flustered pink. “ It’s not a ferris wheel, but I’ll take it.” He extends a hand to Daichi to help him stand up, but instead he just pulls him back down into the bush, nuzzling his nose into the nape of his neck and taking a moment to breathe because _Suga_ _loves him_. 

“Hey!” Suga protests, trying to get away but not trying too hard, resolving to collapse back on top of him.

“Just let me have this for a minute,” Daichi whispers, tightening his grip and trying to commit every sensation to memory. “Let me take it all in.”

“You’re such a dork,” Suga sighs, brushing his fingers absentmindedly through Daichi’s hair. “I love you, but you’re a dork.”

“I love you too,” Daichi smiles, testing how the words feel on his tongue and deciding that there’s no better feeling in the world.

He feels a bit sad, wondering how many years of this they could’ve he had realized his feelings earlier, if he hadn’t been so worried to throw everything away, but none of that matters.  _ This _ is what matters now, Suga in his arms, peppering tiny kisses to his forehead and heart beating flush against his chest. The years lost weren’t truly years lost at all since they were together, and Daichi cherishes every moment spent with Suga, but he can’t wait for what the years ahead hold for them. 


	4. Painless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Future
> 
> Summary: In a future where all disease is practically cured, Daichi meets a sick boy who teaches him how to live.
> 
> ***
> 
> The ground is so proud just to hold us up  
> We're a kiss away from being dangerous  
> Kiss me and show me that it's true  
> You're depressed about a thing you don't really want to do  
> Don't try to write your name in the clouds from the ground
> 
> \- The Long Winters

The injections don’t hurt. Or at least not anymore. The first few years are tougher, the treatment more intense for the children since they haven’t built up a tolerance yet. There are always babies crying in the distance on injection days, though everyone seems to have grown accustomed to the noise. It’s normal, just like the feeling of the silver liquid entering your veins. It’s just a part of life. 

And it’s a small price to pay, Daichi thinks. One injection every three months, totalling four injections a year, and with the life expectancy raised to nearly 95 years, that’s 380 injections in a lifetime. Four quick pinpricks every year and you’re practically invincible. Four pinpricks a year and you’ll never feel pain or sickness. 

The injections were created long before Daichi was born, back when diseases like AIDS and cancer were still untreatable and medication was too highly priced for some families. No one he knew had lived during that time, his only knowledge of it coming from boring textbooks and old novels. It almost feels too distant, almost mythical. Something made up to keep children from fighting their treatments. 

Daichi heads up the hospital steps with his mother, hoping that the line will go quickly today so he can leave and meet his friends in the park. That’s another upside to injection days, he thinks, everyone is excused from work and school. 

As the glass doors slide open Daichi catches a glimpse of silver out of the corner of his eye, and he turns to find a boy talking to a nurse who seems to be looking at him with pity in her eyes. He’s a wisp of a boy, his thin silver hair brushing the tops of his shoulders clad in the thin blue of a hospital gown. Daichi had never seen anyone wear one except in movies, and it feels like stepping back in time. Despite his pale skin and bandaged arms the boy has a cheerful looking face, with warm brown eyes and a whisper of a smile. Daichi isn’t quite sure why he can’t look away. 

“I’m sorry, Mr. Sugawara, but the doctor told me not to let you outside today. Not with so many people coming in.” She sighs, looking at him as if he’s some sort of sad story embodied before her. “You know the rules on injection days.”

“Yup. Stay in my room like a good little invalid and wait for my jello cups,” the boy says, voice so even and chipper that you almost can’t tell his words are dripping with sarcasm. 

“You can go outside tomorrow if the weather is nice,” she tells him, reaching out to put a hand gently on his shoulder.

“If I live until tomorrow,” he smiles, face still as the nurse gasps at his words.

“Mr. Sugawara!” She looks as if she wants to scold him but hesitates.

“Don’t worry about it. See you tomorrow, Miss Yachi,” he says, turning to leave and waving back to her. “Or will I?”

As he walks away the boy makes eye contact with Daichi. He shrugs animatedly, exaggerating the movements and shaking his head, pointing a thumb back at the nurse as if to say ‘can you believe this?’. Daichi is stunned, having no idea how to react to the situation and never having seen a real hospital patient before. It’s jarring, surreal.

The boy seems embarrassed when Daichi doesn’t respond, but before he can turn away Daichi forces himself to smile, and it turns real as the boy’s eyes light up, warm and glistening against his pallid face. 

“Don’t stare, sweetie,” Daichi’s mother’s voice pulls him back as she presses a button for the elevator. “It’s rude.”

“Sorry,” he mumbles, letting her guide him into the elevator and trying to shake off the weird warm feeling the boy gave him. He’d never seen someone so interesting yet so frightening, so beautiful yet so fragile, and he’s not sure if he ever will again. 

In the wing of the hospital where the injections take place the groups split into separate sections by gender, age, and blood type, each room administering a different strain of the treatment best fitted for each person. As they walk in Daichi and his mother swipe their wristbands beneath a scanner which prints a card telling them their vital signs, what percentage of the treatment medication remains in their bloodstream, and which room to report to. 

The men’s room are on the other side of the hallway, so Daichi leaves his mother and heads in that direction, following a stream of men all carrying paper cards with complacent expressions. They’re probably all hoping for a quick wait like Daichi, hoping to spend their free day well. 

The room he’s assigned to is at the end of the hall, but before he can reach out to turn the knob a hand reaches out from the corner and pulls him into another corridor, another hand clamping over his mouth before he can yell.

“Shhhh,” a voice says, Daichi’s eyes settling on the face of the silver haired boy from the lobby. “If someone hears you they’ll make me go back to my room”

Daichi nods, wide eyed and heart beating so fast that his wristband begins to beep quietly. The boy carefully lifts his hand, beaming when Daichi doesn’t make any moves to scream. 

“Sorry to surprise you like that, I just knew there was no way to get you out once you went in there,” the boy explains, shoving his hands into his sweater pocket that Daichi notices he exchanged for the gown from earlier. His hair is stuffed inside a baseball cap, a tuft of silver sticking through the back, and he has a surgical mask hanging around his neck. 

“What are you doing?” Daichi manages to asks, having so many more questions but unable to spit them out. 

“I’m escaping for the day and wanted to see if you’d like to come with me,” the boy tells him, voice bright and cheery. His eyes go wide suddenly and he slaps a hand to his forehead. “Oh! Silly me, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Sugawara Koushi, but you can call me Suga. That’s what they abbreviate my name to on the medical forms.”

He extends his hand and Daichi takes it, fingers like ice against his warm palm. “Sawamura Daichi. But, uh, you can call me Daichi.”

“Daichi,” the way he says it sends a jolt of electricity through Daichi’s hand that still grips Suga’s, spreading up his palm and through his chest. “That’s a nice name. So, are you in or out?”

“Uh,” Daichi mumbles, shaking his head to clear it and pulling his hand back. “Why?”

“Because this place blows and if I have to watch one more TV movie about teens learning that they should have listened to their parents all along I’m going to scream.”

“No, I mean why me?” Daichi asks, wondering why Suga would single him out. Sure, they had a moment back in the lobby, but that doesn’t meant they know each other. Besides, he must have other friends in the hospital, right? If there  _ were _ other people in the hospital, let alone someone their age. 

“Oh, that’s easy,” Suga says, that excited glint returning to his eyes along with a slight tinge of pink standing out against his stark white cheeks. “You were the only person who’s smiled at me like that in a long time. Everyone always looks at me like I’m a tragedy, or someone to be pitied and coddled. But you, you looked at me like I was interesting, and not just in a medical way. For a second it felt like having a friend.”

There’s something sad in Suga’s voice, as if he knows how fleeting his plans are, how fleeting he must be, but he’s doing his best to push it all away. Daichi knew he was beautiful, thought it the second he laid eyes on him, but now he’s radiant, like a moonbeam across the chalk white confines around them. He’s his own source of warmth, wrapped in ice cold skin and snark, and Daichi can’t bring himself to step away. 

“So where are we going?”

Suga’s face breaks into a grin so wide Daichi is afraid it’ll hurt him, quickly standing on his tiptoes and leaning forward to whisper “just follow me. Act casual.”  Daichi has no time to comment before Suga grabs his hand and pulls him further down the hallway they’re hiding in, checking around the corner like some sort of spy before turning down another corridor and pressing the elevator button. 

Thankfully it’s empty, most of the traffic coming in from the other side of the building. Suga presses the button for the lobby, still holding Daichi’s hand as he pull his mask up over his face and tugs his hat lower to shade his eyes. “When we get to the lobby just make a beeline for the door, alright? Don’t look at anyone and don’t stop if someone tries to talk to you. Got it.”

“Y-yeah,” Daichi stutters, starting to feel nervous and wondering if he should turn back. But he doesn’t, Suga’s cold fingers starting to warm against his keeping him grounded. Everyone will be too busy with the crowds lining up, they’ll go completely unnoticed. This’ll be a piece of cake. 

“Alright. Go,” Suga says, just as the elevator dings and the doors slide open to reveal the packed lobby. They step out together, almost in sync, and start to head for the exit. 

Daichi’s heart hammers in his chest, both from fear and from excitement. He’s never done anything like this before, never deviated from the path of what was expected from him, and it’s oddly exhilarating. That is, until the little blonde nurse from earlier appears as if out of nowhere in front of him, checking a clipboard of paperwork as she walks. 

“Shit,” Suga whispers, his hand tightening around Daichi’s. “Turn toward her.”

“What? Are you crazy?” He hisses, time seeming to move in slow motion as the nurse approaches. 

“I’ve been told so, yes. Just do it.”

Daichi obliges, sucking in a quick breath and turning his back toward the exit, fully facing the nurse. Suga moves like lightning, letting go of Daichi’s hand to press both of them and his face against his chest. Daichi instinctively reaches forward, wrapping his arms around Suga’s neck and hiding the silver hair sticking out of his hat.

His heart seems to stop beating, Suga’s hammering hard enough for the both of them between him, as the nurse stops in her tracks and looks straight at them. Time seems to stop, but she just smiles sweetly at the embrace and continues on her way. Neither of them move until she enters the elevator and lets the doors close, turning back to her clipboard.

“That was close,” Daichi breaths, stepping back from Suga and pressing a hand to his chest to check if it’s still working. 

“Well look at you,” Suga says, reaching out to push his shoulder. “You’re a natural at this. I knew I picked a great partner in crime.”

“I think my lungs stopped working.”

“I doubt it. Not with your fancy miracle medicine. C’mon, let’s go.” Suga grabs Daichi’s hand again, their fingers fitting back together like they were made to, and drags him the rest of the way towards the exit. The doors slide open and they’re free, the fresh air feeling better than anything Daichi’s ever breathed before. Stepping outside with Suga is like seeing the world for the first time; the sun shines brighter, the breeze blowing brisker, the colors brighter, life looming around every corner. 

“So where are we off to? I don’t get out much so I don’t really know my way around,” Suga says, appearing even paler beneath the sunlight but eyes full of excitement.

“There’s a park around here. I was going to meet my friends in a few hours but I can ditch them. I know a place beside the pond that’s kind of hidden,” Daichi says blushing as he pictures the spot beneath the trees where most of the kids his age go to make out or drink beer they took from their parents. “I mean, in case anyone comes looking for you.”

“It sounds perfect,” Suga smiles, pulling his mask down so Daichi can appreciate the full effect. “Lead the way.”

The trip is rather short, but Suga slows them down as he points out various flowers or birds, everything seeming to fascinate him. Daichi realizes that most of the things Suga points out are things he’s never notice on his own, things he takes for granted every day of his life. Being with Suga is like living a different life, one where things are beautiful and transient, and you have to appreciate them before they have a chance to disappear. He wonders if Suga falls into that same category. 

When they reach the spot in the park Suga’s face lights up, immediately shedding his shoes and socks and rolling up his pants to dip his feet into the pond. Daichi can see little orange and brown fish beneath the surface of the clear water swim up and nibble Suga’s toes, making him giggle. It’s a sight he could get used to.

“Come sit with me!” Suga calls behind him, patting the patch of shaded grass beside him. Daichi sets his shoes beside Suga’s and sits beside him, close enough to let their thighs brush against each other, feeling the cold water wash over his legs and up his calves.

“It’s cold,” he says quietly, trying to remember if he’d ever bothered to feel the water in the hundreds of times he’d visited this park before. “It feels...weird.”

“Your medication must be wearing off,” Suga tells him, turning toward him and cocking his head to the side curiously. “You’ve never felt the cold before?”

“I’ve been cold. But this feels like, static spreading across my skin. It doesn’t hurt, it’s just odd,” Daichi explains, wondering if Suga thinks he’s weird.

“Interesting. I never thought of it like that.”

They go silent for a while, moving their legs through the water and watching the fish as the cold feeling starts to dissipate. Suga reaches up to pull his hat off, his hair falling down like a silver shower, glistening in the sunlight, and Daichi can’t look away. Suga must notice him staring, turning to Daichi with a sheepish smile as he sets the hat on the ground beside him. 

“You’re probably wondering what’s wrong with me, aren’t you? Why I look this way and why I can’t leave the hospital. Why I have these bandages on my arms,” he says, pulling back his sleeves to reveal the wrappings Daichi had seen earlier.

“N-no,” Daichi mumbles, trying to look anywhere but Suga’s eyes. “You don’t have to tell me, it’s okay.”

“Don’t worry, It’s not a secret,” Suga replies, letting his sleeves fall back down and dropping his hands in his lap. “I’ve been sick as long as I can remember. I have a disease where my white blood cells think that my other blood cells are bad and attack them. It makes it really easy for me to get sick, and I get tired quickly. Sometimes I get really bad fevers or rashes. It’s easier to keep me in the hospital than to call a doctor every time I get sick, I guess.”

“Can’t the injections help with that?” Daichi can’t imagine how something like this could happen in the painless world he’s grown up in. He can’t understand how someone hasn’t fixed it yet.

“You would think, but my body rejects those too. The treatments make me sicker. The symptoms didn’t set in for a few years, so I had the injections for a while, but then suddenly one day I went to the hospital with my parents on injection day and the next thing I knew I was waking up in a hospital bed. They said I had a fever that wouldn’t break for four days and I almost died. The doctors ran some tests and found out what was wrong pretty quickly, but it was clear they were out of their element.” He pauses, smiling at the memory despite the subject matter. Daichi swallows quickly, wondering how on earth Suga could be so happy after everything he’s been through. Is still going through. “They’d never really had to deal with disease, just simple things like broken bones and surgeries. Things you could see and feel and fix. I guess I’m just special.”

Daichi wants to say something. To tell him that yes, he’s special, he’s the most fascinating person he’s ever met. There was no way he could face anything with a smile like Suga does if he was in his shoes, no way he could look at the world with such wonder when he knew that even his own body was fighting against him. He wants to tell him how beautiful he is, but instead settles for “that sucks, man.”

“Yeah,” Suga chuckles, probably tired of people apologizing to him for things he can’t control. “It does suck. But it’s not too bad, you know? I can have jello whenever I want, and sometimes I meet some pretty cool people.” He smirks, and Daichi wonders whether he can see him blushing.

“What’s it like?” Daichi blurts out, wondering what happened to his filter.

“What? The hospital?” Suga asks, puffing out his cheeks and letting the air back out. “Boring as all hell. It’s like living in a box that smells like disinfectant.”

“No, no,” Daichi says, wondering exactly how to phrase his question. “How does it feel to...be hurt. What does pain feel like?”

Suga pauses, eyebrows practically disappearing into his hairline. “Wow. I, uh, I don’t really know how to explain it other than, well, other than it hurts. It just hurts.”

“Oh.” Daichi replies, shoulders sagging. He wasn’t sure what exactly he was expecting, but he can’t help but feel disappointed.

“I can’t tell you, but I can show you.” A mischievous smirk spreads on Suga’s face, eyes glinting wickedly. “Let me push you down some stairs.”

“Wait,  _ what _ ?”

Suga burst into laughter, falling back against the grass and holding his stomach. “Ah, you should see your face! Priceless. As if I’d really push you down the stairs, ya big dummy.”

“No, wait, let’s do it,” Daichi says, not quite sure what’s gotten into him but feeling suddenly determined. 

“You want me to actually push you down some stairs? I know I said I was crazy but-,”

“Maybe not that extreme but I want to feel something. I want to be hurt,” he continues, sitting up on his knees and looking down at Suga still laying on the grass. 

“I don’t know, Daichi,” Suga says, worry knitting into his expression. 

“Just something small, nothing dangerous. Just...slap me.”

“What? No.”

“C’mon!” Daichi pleads, reaching for Suga’s hand and pulling him back up into a sitting position. “Just do it quickly. Hit me as hard as you can.”

“I’m not going to slap you, Daichi, quit it,” Suga crosses his arms, rolling his eyes. “I’m not going to hurt you for no reason.”

“Suga, please,” Daichi says, voice going quiet as he grabs both of Suga’s hands and looks straight into his eyes, noticing how much they look like melted chocolate in the sunlight. “I’ve never felt anything, not really. No pain, no sickness, no true sadness. I’ve never felt any emotion that strongly, long enough to mean something at least. But you have. You feel those things every day, and just being near you is the most I’ve ever felt in my life.”

Suga eyes are wide, looking at Daichi as if he just sprouted another head and started spouting a new language, but he doesn’t stop, letting his thoughts flow freely from his mouth.

“Just today I’ve been afraid, I’ve been surprised and exhilarated. I’ve been  _ happy _ , and it’s all because of you. You’re like this ball of pure feeling, and just being near you it like seeing the world from a totally new perspective. And everything has been great, this has been the best day of my life, but I want to feel pain too. I want to experience every part of you, even the parts that hurt.”

Suga doesn’t respond, his eyes darting to the patch of grass between them as Daichi breathes heavily from the weight of his words. The silence lasts longer than he can stand, and he starts to open his mouth again to apologize when Suga’s hand darts out, lightning quick, slapping him hard across the cheek.

Daichi is so stunned he can’t even make a sound in response. He stares wide eyed at Suga who holds his hands to his mouth as if he’s surprised by his own action, lifting his hand to his cheek that feel warm to the touch. “It...it stings.”

“Yeah,” Suga nods, slowly lowering his hands. “And it’s bright red. I didn’t mean to hit you that hard.”

Daichi peers over the edge of the water to see his reflection, his cheek glowing bright red just as Suga said. It’s such a peculiar feeling. It’s not exactly enjoyable, but at least it’s  _ real _ . “Thank you,” he says, turning back to Suga and feeling a grin spread on his face. “This is wonderful.”

“You're such a weirdo,” Suga says, smiling despite his words, and before Daichi can register what’s happening his arms are wrapped around his neck, their lips pressed together and his heart hammering in his throat. Suga pulls back almost as quickly as he lunged forward, panting from the motion.

“What was that for?” Daichi asks, holding his fingers up to his lips.

“Because there are things I’ve never felt before today either,” Suga blushes, even more beautiful than before, if that’s possible. “I couldn’t let you be the only one having revelations and stuff. I still think you’re a weirdo though.”

Daichi reaches forward, grabbing the front of Suga’s sweater and gently pulling him forward to kiss him again, wondering how he had gone so long without him in his life. Wondering how he found meaning in his life before Suga came along and taught him everything he was missing out on. 

With his cheek still stinging Daichi is suddenly aware of everything around him. He feels the pebbles beneath the grass digging into his knees, he feels Suga’s teeth accidentally nip his lip, he feels the stiffness in his ankles from sitting back on them for so long. Not feeling those things definitely had it’s benefits, Daichi thinks, and he can see why people had set out to rid the world of pain, but if living in a painless world meant not feeling any of the things he’d felt with Suga today then he can’t imagine ever going back. 

Life is painful, love is painful, and with Suga at his side Daichi wants to feel it all. 


	5. Rocky Road

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Secrets
> 
> Summary: Suga makes a new friend on his way home and learns that keeping things from Daichi is harder than he thought. 
> 
> ***
> 
> Oh, got no reason, got no shame  
> Got no family I can't blame  
> Just don't let me disappear  
> I'mma tell you everything
> 
> \- One Republic

The automatic doors of the grocery store slide open, and Suga braces himself for the wave of cold air that waits for him outside. The wind hits his face and he immediately starts shivering, which he refuses to believe has anything to do with the quart of ice cream in the paper bag held against his side. Daichi is definitely going to give him a hard time about the ice cream, he’s never understood why Suga insists on eating it in winter, but that never stopped him from buying it before. Right now, though, he just wants to get home so he can shove it in the freezer instead of letting it slowly push him closer to hypothermia. 

The sky flashes ominously as Suga makes his way to his scooter, quickly followed by a low rumble of thunder, the promise of a storm on the horizon. The rain must not be too far behind, Suga thinks, hoping to make it home before it starts to pour too hard. He tucks the bags of groceries into the scooter’s basket and takes his helmet from the handlebars, slipping it easily over his head and clipping it into place under his chin. As he swings a leg over the seat and pushes the key into the ignition, there’s another flash of lightning, followed by another clap of thunder, considerably louder than the last, and a high pitched squeaking sound. 

The last part is what makes Suga jump, looking around the pavement and under his tires for the source. He’s ready to shrug and get back on the scooter, his search coming up empty, when he hears it again. The sound comes from a bush in the planter next to Suga’s parking space, and when he bends down beside it to part the leaves the sound changes to a hiss.

“Woah, hey there little guy, don’t worry I’m not gonna hurt you,” Suga says, heart melting as he locks eyes with a filthy little kitten. The kitten blinks up with wide terrified eyes and attempts to hiss again, the sound much smaller than before. “Where’s your momma at?”

Suga looks around, scanning the parking lot for signs of another cat but seeing nothing obvious. The mother probably left him here on purpose, but Suga can’t quite bring himself to turn and leave. What if he was abandoned? He can’t possibly go home with a clear conscience knowing this kitten might be stuck in this bush for hours or even days all alone. Or what if someone else came along, someone not so nice, and scooped him up? That would all be Suga’s fault.

His mind is racing, weighing the pros and cons of taking the kitten, when thunder claps again. The kitten lets out another frightened meow, trying to back farther into the leaves, and Suga’s mind is made up. “C’mon. Let’s get you out of here before the rain starts.”

Surprisingly, the kitten doesn’t fight Suga too much as he picks him up. He tries to noodle himself out of his hand, but once Suga presses him close to his chest the kitten sits still, resorting to meowing his protests instead of struggling. Suga considers putting him in the basket of his scooter with the grocery bags, but figures that would just be more stress on the poor thing that’s probably already terrified. Instead he zips down his hoodie and sets the kitten inside, zipping back up just far enough that he can stick his little head out. 

“There, is that cozy? I’ll drive slow so you can’t slip out, alright buddy?” Suga tells the kitten, starting the engine and keeping one arm around the kitten so the noise won’t startle him too much. “Ready to go?” The kitten looks up, face sticking out of his sweater cubby, and gives a short mew. Suga smiles, he can already tell they’re going to be best friends.

The rain starts about five minutes after pulling out of the parking lot, and Suga leans forward on his seat to shield the kitten, hoping he won’t get wet and start to struggle in his lap. Instead he just shivers, curling up closer to Suga’s stomach. 

Suga stops quickly at the convenience store across the street from he and Daichi’s apartment, figuring his groceries are already soaking wet and he might as well make the trip now instead of coming back out into the storm.  He’s careful to keep one arm curled against his waist under the kitten to keep him from slipping out, and he can feel the eyes of the clerk on his back, probably watching the kid with the hood tracking water through his store and waiting for him to shove something in his shirt and run. 

The pet care aisle is extremely limited, but it’ll have to do until he can go out for some proper shopping. Suga grabs a couple of cans of wet cat food along with a bottle of cat shampoo, a small bag of cat litter, and a short plastic bin that will have to serve as a catbox for now. He shoves everything in the bin, along with a few candy bars he can use later to bribe Daichi into keeping the kitten, and does his best to carry it one handed to the register. 

The clerk eyes him suspiciously as he scans the items, glaring pointedly at the bulge in Suga’s sweater. As if on cue the kitten pokes his head out and meows straight at the clerk. He seems almost embarrassed as he bags the items for Suga, probably feeling guilty for assuming he had shoplifted. 

“Have a good day,” he says, pushing the bag across the counter.

“You too,” Suga smiles, and the kitten meows again as if joining the conversation. 

The rain has picked up by the time they get back outside, soaking Suga to the bone as he starts the scooter back up and leaves the parking lot. The kitten is crying and shivering against him as they make it back home, and Suga practically sprints up the stairs to his apartment, carrying all of the bags in one hand and apologizing to the kitten the whole way.

He drops the groceries by the refrigerator and carries the cat supplies to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. 

“Alright, little guy. Let’s get you cleaned up.” Suga takes off his hoodie and throws it in the corner, still cradling the freezing kitten to his wet shirt as he runs warm water in the sink and plugs the drain. 

The kitten eyes the water nervously, twisting frantically in Suga’s hands as he lowers him into it and crying loudly. “I know, I know. It sucks but you’ve gotta get clean. And doesn’t it feel nice? So warm.”

Suga pops open the soap bottle and pour some in his hand, rubbing it into the kitten’s fur and watching the dirt and grime from his fur dissipate into the water. He talks to him the whole time, the kitten’s cries getting shorter and quieter as he gets used to the water, closing his eyes and relaxing as Suga rubs beneath his chin. “Ah yeah, isn’t that nice? No more itchy dirt and sticky fur. This next part is going to suck though, okay? So don’t hate me.”

Before he can meow in protest Suga pours a cup of water gently over his head, rinsing out the soap and careful not to wet the insides of his ears. He repeats it a few times, making sure all of the soap is gone before letting the water out and wrapping the kitten in a towel. 

“Look at you! Such a handsome clean boy,” Suga coos as he dries the kitten off. His fur is a soft stormy gray, the same as the clouds outside, and so much different that the oily brown black he was before his bath. The kitten continues to meow indignantly, still upset with Suga for betraying him with the bath. “Oh hush, you know you feel better so don’t yell at me like that.”

The front door opens, and Suga hears the jingle of Daichi’s keys as he closes it behind him. “Koushi?”

“Ah, crap,” Suga whispers, throwing the end of the towel over the kitten to muffle his mewling. He looks around frantically, spotting the cat food on the counter and grabbing it. This’ll definitely keep him quiet.

He grabs the plate from beneath the plant in the window and dumps some of the cat food onto it, setting it in front of the kitten just as he wiggles his way out of the towel and starts meowing again. “Shhh, eat this buddy. Look how yummy, it’s,” he pauses, lifting the can to read the label, “tuna and gravy. Delicious.”

The kitten obliges, walking towards the plate and practically gulping the food down. It really must be delicious since he starts purring as he’s chewing, making a weird squishing humming sound. It’s not silent, but at least he isn’t crying anymore.

“Koushi, why is there melted ice cream by the refrigerator? And why is the floor soaking wet?” Daichi calls from the other room, his voice getting louder as he heads up the hallway. “Koushi? Where are you?”

Suga holds his breath, heart hammering in his chest. He’d been begging Daichi for a pet ever since they moved in together, but he kept refusing since it’s against the rules in their apartment complex. Always a rule follower, that one. 

There’s a knock at the bathroom door and Suga flinches. “Koushi? Are you in there? Is everything okay?”

“Uh, yeah!” He replies, voice much too high pitched to pass as normal. Daichi is going to see through him in a second. “I’m just...pooping!”

“Oh, sorry,” Daichi mumbles, and Suga can imagine the cute embarrassed look on his face. “I was worried since the kitchen was such a mess and you weren’t answering. Wait...what’s that noise?”

The kitten starts purr gulping louder as he reaches the end of the food, a few short meows working their way into the mix. 

“That’s just my stomach!” Suga calls, reaching behind him to flush the toilet and drown out the noise. “I think I had some bad sushi for lunch. I don’t feel very well.”

“Do you need to go to the doctor?” Daichi asks in his signature concerned voice. 

“Nope! Everything’s fine!”

“Alright. But call me if you need me, okay?”

“You got it. Thanks, babe.” Suga replies, letting out a breath of relief. 

Daichi’s footsteps start to move away from the door just as the kitten starts pushing the plate across the floor, licked completely clean. “Woah there, little guy,” Suga says, reaching for the plate but not before the kitten pushes it hard against the side of the bathtub, echoing loudly in his ears. 

Daichi’s footsteps return almost immediately. “What was that?”

“Nothing!” Suga calls, trying to make up a cover story. “I just dropped the shampoo in the tub.”

“I thought you were pooping,” Daichi says, his tone suspicious.

“I was! But then I decided to take a bath,” Suga lies, carefully lifting the plate and setting it on the counter. The kitten starts mewling loudly as the plate disappears from his sight, and Suga panics, throwing the towel back over him. 

“Koushi? Is that a _ cat _ ?”

“What? Of course not! There’s no cats allowed here.”

“Then what was that noise?”

“That was...the wind. Outside the window,” Suga mutters, knowing Daichi won’t buy it. He’s not as good at this lying thing as he thought he was.

“Babe,” Daichi sighs, leaning against the door. “C’mon. Let me in.”

“Fine. But promise you won’t be mad,” Suga says, standing up and gripping the doorknob. 

“Just open the door.”

He does, revealing Daichi with arms crossed over his chest and foot tapping in the hallway. “Where is it?”

“Where’s what?”

“The kitten, Koushi,” Daichi sighs, rolling his eyes. “You’re a terrible liar.”

With another indignant meow the kitten makes his appearance, escaping the towel prison and bounding up to Suga before looking up at Daichi and hiding behind his ankle. “It’s alright, little guy. He’s not as scary as he’s trying to look.” 

Suga reaches down and scoops the kitten up, holding him out to Daichi. “I found him in a bush at the store. He was afraid of the thunder and covered in filth. I couldn’t leave him there. Not when it was about to start storming.”

Daichi doesn’t say a word, just reaches out to take the kitten, lifting him up to eye level and looking him over.

“He’s really sweet,” Suga continues, watching as Daichi lays the kitten in his arms and pokes gently at his belly. The kitten bats playfully at Daichi’s fingers, and Suga waits for him to smile, but he doesn’t. “He let me carry him home in my sweater and he even meowed at that scary clerk across the street when he thought I was stealing.”

“He’s a girl,” is all Daichi says, holding the kitten back out to Suga, who takes her. 

“Oh,” Suga mutters, looking the kitten in the eyes. “Sorry I’ve been calling you a boy, baby girl.” The kitten meows in answer, and Suga takes it as accepting his apology. 

“You’d better teach her how to meow quieter if you don’t want the landlord hearing her,” Daichi tells him, and Suga’s head whips up, chest soaring.

“Do you mean it?”

“Well we can’t abandon her in the middle of a storm, now can we?” A smile finally breaks through Daichi’s faked stoicism, and Suga launches himself forward, careful not to squish the kitten as he peppers kisses all over Daichi’s face. 

“You’re the  _ best _ , babe, I love you, I love you, I love you,” Suga says between kisses, smiling so hard his cheeks ache. “We’re going to be the cutest little family. You’re going to be such a good daddy.”

“The cat is not going to call me daddy,” Daichi sighs, rubbing his temples and probably regretting his decision. 

“Well of course not, silly,” Suga smiles, stepping back and holding the kitten up. “She can’t talk.’

“She better not poop on anything,” Daichi warns, trying to sound stern but failing miserably as he reaches out to gently poke the kitten’s nose.

“Of course not, right Rocky?” She meows as if to answer, and Suga beams. “See?”

“Rocky?” Daichi asks, narrowing his eyebrows.

“I was buying rocky road ice cream when I found her,” Suga explains. “It’s cute, don’t you think?”

“Ah, so that’s what’s melted all over the kitchen floor,” Daichi says, reaching out to lift the kitten from Suga’s arms and nuzzle her up to his nose. “Do you want to watch daddy scrub the kitchen floor, Rocky?”

She meows, and Suga gasps. “Betrayed by my own child. After I saved your life.”

“The mop is next to the washer,” Daichi tells him with a smile, lifting one of Rocky’s paws to wave at him. “Make sure to get under the cabinets.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he waves, setting off down the hallway. His heart soars at the image of tiny Rocky being swallowed up in Daichi’s arms. He’d mop the floor every day for the rest of his life just to see that again.

As Suga cleans up his melted ice cream mess, listening to the sounds of Daichi and Rocky playing together in the living room, he can’t stop smiling. He isn’t sure whether Rocky is lucky to have been found or if he and Daichi are the the lucky ones to have her in their life, but he knows that the future holds nothing but happiness for their little family. 

 


	6. 1948

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Old/New
> 
> Summary: Suga is ready for the date of his life, but Daichi’s dinosaur of a car has different ideas.
> 
> ***
> 
> My days end best when this sunset gets itself  
> Behind that little lady sitting on the passenger side  
> It's much less picturesque without her catching the light  
> The horizon tries but it's just not as kind on the eyes
> 
> \- Arctic Monkeys

Suga splashes cold water on his face for the fifth time that night, hoping that this attempt will actually wash away the nervousness pulling at his chest. It doesn’t, and he sighs, looking at himself in the bathroom mirror. 

“You’ve got this, Koushi. You’re going to go out, you’re going to have a good time, and you might even smooch a cute boy,” he tells himself, checking again to make sure his collar is flat against the neck of his navy blue sweater and straightening his bow tie. His older sister had told him he looked like a clown with the tie and his red sneakers when he showed her his outfit, but his little sister insisted he looked cute, so he figures ‘ambiguous middle ground’ is an okay place to be on the fashion scale. 

Suga walks over to his desk, shoving his wallet and keys into his pocket and sitting on the edge of his bed. Daichi should be here any minute, and as excited he is for their date he can’t stop the nervous tapping of his foot against the floor or his thoughts from imagining every single way the night could go horribly wrong. 

Instead he tries to focus on how he felt when Daichi asked him out, recalling the warm butterfly feeling that followed him around all week afterwards. They weren’t friends, and had only spoken a few times during group study sessions, but Suga had developed a bit of a crush on the burly boy with the smile that could melt icebergs. He had been walking away from the math building where they shared a trigonometry class, earbuds shoved in and trying to ignore the crowds around him when he felt something warm touch his arm and disappear just as fast. He looked up, seeing Daichi pass him on his skateboard with a shy smile, just to hit a break in the cement and completely eat it, skateboard shooting out from beneath his feet like a ballistic and smacking into a tree a few meters ahead. Luckily he landed on his side, protected by his thick varsity jacket, but his face had gone a deep red. 

Suga ran forward, bending down beside him and taking his headphones out, not sure if he should touch him or not. “Are you okay?”

“Oh god, don’t read that,” Daichi said, making absolutely no sense. Suga wrinkles his eyebrows, and Daichi pointed at the hand he had touched when he passed. Everything had moved so fast that Suga didn’t have a chance to realize Daichi had slipped a folded note into his hand. “Just give it back.”

“No way,” Suga shook his head, shoving it in his pocket and standing up to extend his hand to Daichi, ignoring the nervous electricity up his arm as he helped him stand. 

“Please, don’t read that. You’re going to think I’m a loser. Spare me,” Daichi pleaded, dusting off his clothes and fixing Suga with the most tempting puppy dog stare he’d ever seen. 

“Can I read it if I promise not to think you’re a loser?” Suga asked, trying not to smile but failing miserably.

“You already do, don’t you?” Daichi said, covering his eyes with one hand. “I can see it on your face.”

“No, no, I promise!” Suga insisted, reaching out to pull Daichi’s arm away from his face. “I think you’re kind of cute.”

Then it was Suga’s turn to blush, face burning as he quickly released Daichi’s arm and looked down at the ground, realizing they were blocking half of the sidewalk and receiving some colorful looks from the other college students hurrying past them. Suga couldn’t care less though; he was in the middle of something important. 

“I guess...I could let you open it,” Daichi’s voice came a few moments later, his face still pink and nervously rubbing at the back of his neck when Suga looked back up. 

The paper was wrinkled by then, and a bit damp from the nervous sweat in Suga’s palms. It was gross, but he pretended nothing was wrong, not wanting Daichi to know he was a nervous hand sweater. He unfolded it, heart skipping a beat at the scribbled words inside. It was meant to look like an invitation, drawn in ballpoint pen on notebook paper, but Suga loved it. 

‘You are invited to a night on the town. Dinner and movie included. Call ------- to RSVP’

Suga could no longer feel his face from how hard he was smiling, his stomach so full of butterflies he was afraid he’d lift off from the ground and take flight. When he looked back up, eager to accept, Daichi was gone. He’d called the number on the note later that night, nervously hanging up at least three times before letting it ring, and ended up talking for a few hours before dozing off on the phone and begrudgingly saying goodbye.

The next few days felt like a millennia, especially with Daichi’s usual seat in trig class sitting empty. It wasn’t like Daichi to miss class, not that Suga had been paying that close attention, but he didn’t have time to worry before his phone buzzed in his pocket with a text from Daichi. 

‘Don’t worry, we’re still on for tomorrow night :)’

Trig had never been so interesting, or maybe it was just the excited buzzing in his veins for the rest of class. 

The doorbell rings, snapping Suga out of his thoughts and immediately bringing his nervous jitters back. He stands and checks his hair in the mirror one more time, running his hands through the sides and adjusting the hem of his sweater. 

“Koushiiiiii,” his sister’s voice calls from the other room, “your boyfriend is here.”

He’s out the door and down the hallway in a second, moving faster than he probably has since the neighbor’s dog broke out of their yard while he was feeding a stray cat. His life had flashed before his eyes as he looked up and saw a monster made of pure muscle and fluff charging straight for him, and without thinking he had scooped the cat up and ran inside, regretting it immediately as the cat began hissing and spitting in his arms, leaving scratch scars on his arms and chest that are probably still visible. His mom had to pour peroxide all over him, the liquid bubbling and burning against the wounds. This is kind of like that time.

Daichi stands in the doorway, face pink and probably uncomfortable from being called Suga’s ‘boyfriend’, when Suga rounds the corner, trying not to seem breathless from the sprint.

“Wow, thanks sis,” he smiles, putting a hint of venom only she can detect in his voice and elbowing her as he passes. “See you later, bye!” 

The door shuts in her face before she can reply, and Suga lets out a breath before turning around. “Sorry about that,” he says, shrugging sheepishly at Daichi. “Sisters. Do you have any?”

“Uh, no,” Daichi answers, blinking and shaking his head slightly as if to clear it, everything having moved much too fast for him to make sense of it. “I have an older brother, but he moved out a couple years ago. Your name is Koushi?”

“Yeah?” Suga cocks his head to the side, fixing Daichi with a confused yet amused gaze. “Did you think Suga was my first name?”

“Well, that’s what everyone calls you,” Daichi replies, embarrassed. 

“You thought my name was Sugawara Suga?”

“Well, when you put it that way…,”

Suga laughs, probably harder than he should, but everything just seems funnier around Daichi, and the sound seems to relieve a bit of his embarrassment. “You’re a dork.”

Daichi mock gasps, pressing a hand to his chest and everything. “I was going to say Koushi is a nice name but now I take it back.”

“How can you take it back if you never said it?”

“I retroactively take it back, so now I never even thought it,” Daichi smirks, folding his arms smugly across his chest.

“No! Don’t take it back, I’m sorry!” Suga pleads, unable to stop smiling to make it believable. “You’re not a dork!”

“Nope. You’ve already hurt me. The damage is irreparable.”

“I retroactively take it back,” Suga says, pouting out his bottom lip and trying to recreate Daichi’s puppy dogs eyes. “Now I never even thought you were a dork.”

“Fine,” Daichi surrenders, holding his hands up. “Koushi is a nice name. And you’re a dork.”

“Hey!”

Daichi laughs at the way Suga puffs out his cheeks and puts his hands on his hips, shaking his head. “We should probably get going before the movie starts without us.”

“Oh! Right!” Suga slaps a hand to his forehead. “Standing on my porch all night wouldn’t be a very good date.”

“I wouldn’t mind,” Daichi mumbles, and Suga isn’t sure if he was meant to hear it. He decides to act as if he didn’t, even though his heart picks up pace a little and the butterflies multiply in his stomach. 

“I’m parked right over here,” Daichi says, pointing Suga towards the street. He finally gets a good look at Daichi as he leads him down the walkway. He’s still wearing his signature letterman jacket but it’s open over a nice shirt and dark jeans, and the backwards baseball cap is gone, replaced by a softly tousled look that Suga wants to reach out and touch. He bets it’s feather soft, but he’ll have to wait to see for himself. 

As they walk down Suga sees a gaudy monster of a car parked next to his driveway, the paint job so shiny he can see the entire sky in burgundy. “Geez, who parked this ugly thing here? It looks like someone watched Grease a few too many times.”

“Uh, I did,” Daichi answers, stepping over to the driver’s side door and holding it open for Suga who feels his entire stomach disappear. The driver’s side turns out to actually be the passenger side, but Suga doesn’t have time to worry about that while being absolutely mortified. 

“Oh god, I’m so sorry,” he says, waving his hands in front of him as if he can shoo his words away. “I didn’t mean-,”

“It’s fine,” Daichi chuckles, and Suga starts to breathe again. “I get that a lot. It’s my dad’s actually.”

“I’ve just...never seen anything like it. I don’t know much about cars.”

Daichi ushers him into the car and walks around to the actual driver’s side before continuing the conversation. The engine makes an odd churning sound before roaring to life, the entire cab vibrating beneath them.

“My dad is a little bit obsessed with old timey American cars,” Daichi shrugs, seeming embarrassed, and Suga couldn’t feel worse for making fun of it. “This is a 1948 Ford DeLuxe convertible. We fixed it up together.”

“Oh! That’s really cool,” Suga says sincerely, hoping he isn’t coming across as pretentious.

“I thought it was ugly,” he says, looking over at Suga with playful smile. 

“That was before I knew the sentimental value,” Suga returns, joking to cover up his nervousness.

“Ah, I see. Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret.”

“What?” Suga whispers, not sure why since it’s only the two of them.

“You were right. This is the same model of car as the Grease movie.”

“You’re kidding,” he replies, jaw falling open.

“Cross my heart,” Daichi laughs. “My dad is a huge American movie nerd. I guess the dork gene runs in the family.”

“There are worse genes you could’ve gotten,” Suga says, embarrassing himself with his own cheesy lines and deciding to change the subject. “Is it weird to be sitting on the wrong side of the car? I can’t get over being on the left side and not having a steering wheel in front of me.”

“Nah, I’ve been driving American cars since I was little. I can drive both ways, I don’t even really notice a difference.”

“A man of many talents,” Suga nods, and he swears he can see a hint of pink tinge Daichi’s cheeks.

They drive in an easy silence for a while, the sky darkening to lavender and finally an inky blue outside the windows, the radio staticky like one of those highway diners on tv movies. It’s a soft quiet, without awkwardness or a need for conversation between them. It’s a silence Suga can get used to, and he wonders if it would be weird to reach across the bench seat and take Daichi’s hand. 

He doesn’t get a chance to decide, though, as the engine starts to sputter, rattling the cab around them. 

“Oh, no,” Daichi mutters, sitting forward and peering out of the windshield as if he can see through the hood and find what’s wrong. “No, no, no.” 

“Is everything okay?” Suga asks, feeling silly since everything is clearly not fine.

“She’s just having a bit of hiccups,” Daichi answers, pushing gently on the gas but receiving no guttural roar in response. The engine sputters a few more times before stopping completely, Daichi letting it roll to a gentle stop along the shoulder of the road. 

“I think she might have choked,” Suga says, peering over at Daichi.

“Yeah, that happens when you forget to get gas.”

“You didn’t.”

“I did,” he sighs, dropping his head against the steering wheel. “I was too preoccupied with fixing her up enough for tonight that I forgot to check the gas tank.”

That must have been where he was during trig class the other day, Suga thinks, somewhere in between flattered that he put forth so much of an effort and feeling even worse for calling the car ugly. 

“Don’t worry, we can walk to the station and get some gas,” Suga says gently, Hoping Daichi isn’t feeling bad for the turn of events.

“The closest gas station is like five kilometers,” he answers, turning his head on the wheel to look up at Suga. “That’s going to take a while. You can wait here if you want.”

“No way,” Suga replies, crossing his arms over his chest. “I was promised a date, and if that entails spending the night walking to and from the gas station then so be it. I’d be honored to accompany you.”

“Alright,” Daichi smiles, finally lifting his head. “I guess we’d better get going then if I’m going to get you home at a reasonable hour.”

“Who says I want to be home at a reasonable hour?”

“You know, I can’t tell whether you’re sweet or sassy. You’re like a kitten wearing a lion mane.”

“How about both?” Suga asks, trying not to let Daichi see him melting at the analogy. 

“I can deal with both.”

Suga opens the door and climbs out of the car to avoid replying, his heart beating in his throat. He didn’t know it was possible to be that cute, but Daichi keeps surprising him. 

The night is beautiful, the sky clear and twinkling with a blanket of stars. That’s one of the things Suga always like about living in a small country town; the roads are long and empty, the town virtually silent after 8pm, and the sky is always full of stars. 

Daichi sets off walking, and Suga follows, still staring up at the sky. 

“Looking for something?” Daichi asks, looking up and squinting, trying to follow Suga’s line of sight.

“Hercules should be out tonight, it’s summer,” he replies, scanning the sky. “There it is.” He points up, and Daichi shakes his head. 

“I don’t see anything.”

“Look,” he says, taking Daichi’s hand and pointing out the individual stars in the constellation. “There’s his body, his arms, legs, and his head. He’s supposed to look like he’s falling.”

“That looks like a lizard,” Daichi says, but his eyes light up anyway. “A cool lizard.”

“How about Ursa Minor? Over there,” Suga tells him, still holding his hand and pointing out another batch of stars. 

“That’s a spoon.”

“It’s a bear! What about Vulpecula?”

“A caterpillar.”

“You’re impossible,” Suga laughs, dropping Daichi’s hand. “It’s a fox. You have no eye for stars.”

“I guess it isn’t one of my  _ many talents _ ,” he quips, nudging Suga’s gently. “But I’m sure you could teach me. You seem to know quite a bit.”

“I just read a lot of astrology books as a kid. We’re all dorks in our own way,” he replies, hand feeling cold without Daichi’s in it. “I could show you some stuff though. Winter is my favorite season to stargaze, since I’m a bit partial to Gemini.”

“What does that one look like?” Daichi asks.

“The twin half-brothers Castor and Pollux, sons of Zeus and Tyndareus.”

“But what does it  _ actually _ look like?”

“Kind of like a fish with arms,” Suga laughs, folding his arms. “It’s all about the illusion, though. You have to use your imagination.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll try,” Daichi concedes, flashing Suga a wide eyed grin, the stars reflecting in his dark eyes. It makes Suga’s heart skip a beat. “Show me another one.”

Suga points out more constellations as the walk until he runs out of ones he knows that appear in summer. Instead of stopping he starts pointing out random clusters and making up stories, seeing how ridiculous he can get before Daichi catches on. 

“And that one is Mooseus, the winged moose queen that married a snake and gave birth to Chrysanthemum the goddess of butter churning.”

“That’s like a weits number seven shape,” Daichi says, furrowing his eyebrows. “And isn’t chrysanthemum a type of flower?”

“She’s also a goddess of flowers,” Suga adds, nodding matter of factly. 

“Are you messing with me? That can’t be true,” Daichi asks, giving Suga such a confused look that he can’t help but burst into laughter. 

“I made up like the last ten,” he confesses, wiping a tear from his eye as he continues to laugh. “You’re so gullible.”

“I had my suspicions,” Daichi huffs, trying to act indignant but letting a smile poke through. “I just liked watching you explain them. The moonlight was reflecting in your hair and you looked so happy just looking at the stars.”

The mood drops from playfulness to something softer, something warm like the summer breeze lightly ruffling their clothes. 

“Your nose kept scrunching up all cute,” Suga confesses, unable to look Daichi straight in the eyes. “I kept going because I wanted to see it some more.”

Silence falls again, but this time their shoulders brush a bit closer, hands lightly touching every few steps. Suga doesn’t want to push it by reaching out, but just being close is good enough for him. 

“You know, I’m failing trigonometry because of you,” Daichi breaks the silence, turning to Suga with a mock serious expression. “I’m going to flunk out of college and it’s all your fault.”

“What? What did I do?”

“You sit there everyday, looking all cute and chewing on your pencil, and then sometimes I catch you glancing over at me and my heart races,” Daichi says, making Suga’s face flare up so hot he thinks he might combust. “How’s a guy supposed to concentrate? I’m not even bad at math, but I can’t stop staring at you long enough to learn anything.”

“Why are you such a flirt?” Suga asks, wondering how he got so lucky to have been put in that dumb class with Daichi and ended up here. 

“I don’t know,” Daichi shrugs, his voice honest. “I’m not usually like this, I swear. There’s just something about you that brings it out of me”

“I’m really glad you car broke down,” Suga blurts, the words not sounding the way he meant them to.

“Now that’s a bit harsh. I know you think she’d ugly but-,”

“No, I mean I’m glad I’m here. With you,” Suga explains. “I’d be happy to be anywhere with you, but I just don’t think we’d have had the same experience with dinner and a movie.I...I really like you.”

“I really like you too,” Daichi confesses, soft and almost lost to the breeze, but this time Suga knows he was meant to hear it. “Even if you called me a dork and lied to me about the snake moose goddess of butter churning.”

“What can I say? I’m into gullible dorks.”

Daichi doesn’t reply, just continues walking forward shoulder to shoulder with Suga, and reaches for his hand. Suga twines their fingers together, that same rush of electricity from when he helped him after he crashed his skateboard flowing up his arm. 

“Y’know, if you need help with trig I can tutor you. I’ve got a pretty cushy A in there,” Suga tells Daichi, swinging their arms between them.

“Something tells me that would be a little counterproductive.”

“Hmm, but you can’t do this in class,” he says, quickly reaching up on his tiptoes to press a chaste kiss to Daichi’s face. Even in the moonlight, with color bleached out of the world around them, Suga can see Daichi’s blush.

“Now who’s the flirt?” He asks.

“I guess you just bring it out of me too.”

The lights of the gas station touch the horizon, and Suga is almost sad that their evening together is almost over, even though he has a feeling there will be many more to come. Daichi buys a gas can and they fill it up, insisting on carrying it himself all the way back. 

By the time the car is gassed up and running again they’ve definitely missed their movie, and no good restaurant is open so they settle for greasy diner burgers, the only other customers being tired truckers passing through town. It’s not glamorous, and definitely not the date either of them were expecting, but then again they nothing about Daichi was anything Suga had expected.

It was perfect, though.  _ He _ was perfect, and as long as they’re together, Suga figures the world is just a little more perfect. 

 


	7. Witch Hunt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Forest
> 
> Summary: Daichi needs footage to finish his film final, so he drags Suga and their friends with him into the woods to search for the Blair Witch. What’s the worst that can happen?
> 
> ***
> 
> There is no pain you are receding  
> A distant ship, smoke on the horizon  
> You are only coming through in waves  
> Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying  
> When I was a child  
> I caught a fleeting glimpse  
> Out of the corner of my eye  
> I turned to look but it was gone  
> I cannot put my finger on it now  
> The child is grown  
> The dream is gone  
> I have become comfortably numb
> 
> \- Pink Floyd

“Did you pack extra batteries for the flashlights?”

“Two whole packs.”

“Lighters and matches?”

“Enough to burn the whole place down.”

“Not funny. What about extra socks and shoes.”

“Do you expect to be able to walk with these giant backpacks? Or are we just packing and not actually going to hike anywhere because we’re trapped under the weight of our own preparedness?”

“Will you put that camera away already?”

Suga pouts as he shuts the little window of the camera and shoves it back into his bag. “I thought you said it was important to  _ document the experience _ ,” he says, putting air quotes around Daichi’s words. 

“This isn’t the  _ experience _ ,” he replies, shaking his head. “This is just the drive to the experience.”

“That totally qualifies as part of the experience,” Suga argues, fishing for the camera again. “Ever heard of rising action?”

“Ever heard of limited battery supply and no electricity in the woods to charge our cameras?”

“I told you I got two packs!” Suga says, pretending to be upset and failing miserably. He’s just as excited as Daichi is.

“The others are going to blow through those in one night recording stupid stunts and telling ghost stories with the flashlights. Just watch,” Daichi tells Suga, who pouts again. He mocks Daichi’s words under his breath as he rearranges his pack, and Daichi pretends not to notice. 

Speaking of the others, a car appears beside him, speeding up to pass them on the empty road. Kuroo leans against the back window and salutes them cooly, Bokuto practically crawling on top of him to press his nose flat against the glass, white fog spreading from his nostrils. In the passenger seat Oikawa turns to face the window, pulling the collar of his shirt down as if flashing his nonexistent boobs and sticking out his tongue before a hand reaches out to grab his shoulder and pull him back down. Daichi does not envy Iwaizumi; he definitely got the short end of the stick on their driving arrangements. 

Daichi turns to Suga, watching his stare quietly out of the passenger window, a bored expression on his face. 

“You know, there’s still time to turn back. I know you don’t like camping or any of this urban legend stuff,” Daichi says, feeling bad for dragging him out here with him.

“Where you go, I go,” Suga says, turning away from the window to smile at him. “Besides, it’s only three days. What’s the worst that can happen?”

Daichi tries to ignore the ominous feeling Suga’s words carry and smiles back, thankful for his company.

Both cars pull off of the road after a few more minutes, going slowly over the uneven ground and bouncing around in their seats. They stop near an old fence, one Daichi had seen before but never ventured past, the posts barely being held up by rusted strings of barbed wire. Everyone spills out of the cars, and Iwaizumi makes his way over to Daichi.

“Next time you can take the peanut gallery,” he says, voice gruff and tired. 

“No way,” Bokuto calls from behind Iwaizumi’s car, hoisting his backpack on his shoulders. “I don’t wanna ride with the love birds.”

“But you rode with Oikawa and Iwaizumi,” Suga says, appearing at Daichi’s side and reaching for his hand. 

“Yeah, but they aren’t dating,” Bokuto replies, confused.

“Yet,” Kuroo adds.

“Oi! Shut it!” Iwaizumi calls, chucking a bottle of water at Bokuto while Oikawa winks.

“Why are all of our friends so gay,” Bokuto asks, walking over to pick up the water bottle with a huff.

“You’re gay as hell too, Bo,” Kuroo chuckles. “Don’t think I haven’t seen you eyeing that barista on campus.”

“Wha,” Bokuto sputters, puffing out his cheeks. “So are you! What about that guy at gamestop?”

“I am  _ not _ ,” Kuroo gasps, jaw dropping in offense. “I am ostentatiously bisexual, thank you very much.”

“Is everybody done? Let’s go,” Daichi calls, already feeling exhausted. He’d have taken the trip with only Suga if he wasn’t so nervous about it, not that he’d ever let anyone see that. Part of him knows that they won’t find anything, but a smaller, much less rational part of him, believes the stories could be true. 

“What are we out here for again?” Kuroo asks after about ten minutes of hiking and an entire argument about dark haired boys versus blonds with Bokuto. 

“Mothman.”

“UFO sightings.”

Oikawa and Iwaizumi answer at the same time, shooting each other equally unimpressed looks at the other’s choice of cryptid. 

“We’re looking for the Blair Witch,” Suga answers, squeezing Daichi’s hand as he turns to look over his shoulder. “It’s for Daichi’s filmmaking final, so we should all try to take it a little more seriously, okay?”

“Is that why you made us watch that creepy documentary?” Oikawa asks. “The one with those hicks talking about that guy who murdered kids and all those other people who went missing trying to look for his house in the woods or whatever?”

“That wasn’t a documentary,” Daichi sighs, rubbing at his temple with his free hand. “That was the footage I’ve already gotten. I’ve been doing research and interviews for months now.”

“So there really was some kid murderer out here?” Iwaizumi asks, face betraying no emotion on the matter.

“From what I’ve gathered, yeah. The murderer was real, but legend says the witch made him do it, so that’s what we’re investigating,” Daichi explains, feeling silly as the words leave his mouth. He hadn’t really thought of all of this sensibly since choosing a subject for his project, but now that he’s standing in the woods with his boyfriend and best friends, claiming that they’re going on a witch hunt, he suddenly feels like deflating. He wouldn’t be surprised if they all turned and went home right now. 

They all stand and stare at him for a few moments, the silence heavy and time slowing to a crawl. Daichi can practically feel himself sinking into the dirt, Suga’s hand in his the only thing anchoring him to solid ground. 

“Wicked,” Kuroo smiles, tucking his thumb under the straps of his backpack and rolling on the balls of his feet. “Let’s go catch a witch.”

Everyone else nods and follows him as he starts walking again, Daichi’s surprise rooting him to the spot. Suga stays beside him, turning to smile up at him with that ‘everything's going to be fine’ smile he’s so good at. 

“I told you they’d be supportive,” he says, rubbing small circles on Daichi’s hand with his thumb. “They’re a bunch of goofballs but they know this is important to you.”

“Thanks,” Daichi whispers, voice carrying in the emptiness of the trees around them. Suga kisses him quickly on the cheek in response. “Let’s hurry and catch up before they get lost. I doubt they brought the maps I gave them.”

“Good idea. Lead the way, director.”

They catch up quickly, the group practically impossible to lose with how much noise they’re making, and Daichi pulls his camera from his bag. There’s not much to see, just trees and a wall of green occasionally broken up by a stream or fallen log, so he tries to narrate a few shots.

“The last known people to have entered these woods disappeared almost fifteen years ago, their camera footage found not far from where their cars were parked. The same place we have parked today. It’s a mystery as to how their cameras ended up in this area, since their footage showed their last known location to be the abandoned house of the murderer”

“Is that your narrator voice?” Oikawa asks, popping into the view of Daichi’s camera. He sighs and lowers it, hoping he can edit Oikawa out later without ruining what he was saying. “You’ve got to put more flare in it. Make it spooky.”

“This isn’t a scary movie, it’s a documentary,” Daichi tells him, rolling his eyes.

“Try something like this,” Oikawa continues, paying no attention to what Daichi says. He clears his throat, lowering his voice to a smooth rumble. “This area is where the Blair Witch was known...to  _ eat _ children. Nothing could satisfy her _ insatiable _ blood lust.”

“You sound like one of those call services for phone sex.”

“Thanks,” Oikawa smirks, “that’s what I was going for. You need to dress this movie up. Make it sexy.”

“Witches aren’t sexy,” Daichi shakes his head, turning to catch back up with the others.

“Not yet. You have an untapped market here,” Oikawa continues, jogging back to Daichi’s side.

“Give it a rest, dude. We’re not starting a witch fetish movement.”

“I’m just saying it would be a waste not to-,”

“Hey! Daichi! Come check this out!” Suga calls him from somewhere ahead on the trail, and Daichi speeds up before Oikawa can keep talking to him about...whatever it was he was implying.

Suga stands a ways away from the others, who continue walking, smiling when Daichi returns to his side. “Thought you might have needed bailed outta that once,” he winks, pretending to point out a patch of flowers to the side of the trail.

“I owe you one. You don’t even want to know what he was going on about,” Daichi says, hugging Suga to his side and pressing a kiss to his temple. 

“I usually don’t,” he laughs.

The group continues on much the same for a few hours, stopping shortly for water and trail mix before setting off again to find a place to camp. As they pitch their tents Daichi can’t help but feel disappointed not to have seen anything interesting so far. He knows that’ll probably be the case for the entire three day journey, but he was looking forward to finding at least a few oddities he could try and sell as ambiguous evidence. Despite that, though, he was enjoying himself. 

They eat a dinner of hotdogs in smashed buns, the ends scorched from the open fire and tasting of char but still good. This is what Daichi had meant by the experience, even if he had sold it as a journey of spooks and mysteries. It’s still technically a witch hunt, yes, but mostly it’s an opportunity for him to spend some time with Suga and the others before they all graduate. That is, if his film project is good enough to pass.

When the sun disappears completely, leaving nothing but inky darkness creeping on the edges of their campsite like an opaque fog only restrained by the light of the fire, Bokuto and Kuroo start telling ghost stories by flashlight just as Daichi had predicted. He and Suga sit and listen for a while, Suga sitting between Daichi’s knees and leaning his head back against his chest, before retiring to their tent for the night. The others shout after them, silly things about staying quiet and keeping their hands to themselves, but mostly they let them be. 

They don’t talk much, both exhausted from their day of hiking and feeling the activity finally settle into their bones, snuggled close inside one sleeping bag despite bringing two. Just before falling asleep Suga turns his head, mouth close to Daichi’s ear, and whispers, “Don’t get discouraged. Two days is a long time for spooky stuff to happen.”

“Hmm,” Daichi replies, focusing instead on Suga’s arm across his chest and their legs tangled together. “As long as it waits until morning. I’m comfortable.”

Suga kisses Daichi’s neck before nuzzling back against his chest, and before he knows it he’s asleep.

***

Turns out, the spooky stuff does wait until morning. 

Daichi wakes when the sky is mostly light, the sun weak as it hits the walls of the tent. He has to carefully extract himself from Suga’s grip to slide out of the sleeping bag, immediately feeling cold and wondering how Suga slept through so much movement. He unzips the opening of the tent and steps out, his stomach immediately dropping.

Hanging from the trees, in a radius around their camp, are dozens of little people fashioned out of sticks and straw. Daichi can’t breathe; he remembers learning about something like this from his research. The people who went missing had found something like this too, stick dolls and little piles of—

His foot hits something hard, and he looks down to find a small pile of rocks tumbling over, several similar piles sitting in front of the other two tents. This is too much to handle.

“Suga!” He calls, unwilling to take his eyes off of the dolls to crawl back in the tent and wake him. “Babe, get out here!”

He hears rustling behind him, and a few moments later Suga pokes his head out of the tent, silver hair sticking up on one side and sleeping bag wrapped around his shoulders. “Why are you yelling? It’s too early for noise.”

“Look,” is all he manages to choke out, gesturing to the dolls and rocks.

“Hey, that looks pretty good,” he yawns, scratching his head. “Make sure you get some good footage before the others wake up.”

“No, Suga, I didn’t do this,” Daichi insists, trying to convey his fear to Suga who still isn’t quite paying attention. “I just woke up and...and _ this _ was out here.”

Suga blinks slowly, words starting to register in his sleepy brain, his eyebrows pulling together. “Woah, babe, are you serious?”

“I’m dead serious. I don’t understand it.”

“Why is everyone being so loud? I’ll have you know I’m a real pain when I don’t have my beauty sleep,” Oikawa says, unzipping his tent to their side and poking his head out. 

“You’re a pain anyway,” Iwaizumi’s voice comes from inside the tent. 

“Mean,” Oikawa pouts, crawling out and knocking over one of the rock piles. “What’s this doing here….oh.” He looks up, eyes widening at the dolls hanging around him, some just above his head and some eye level.

“Don’t knock over the rocks,” Daichi says, stretching a hand out as Oikawa steps into another pile.

“What is this? Did you do this?” He asks Daichi, shooting him an accusatory look as Iwaizumi stumbles out of the tent wearing just a pair of green plaid pajama pants. 

“Why are you wearing Iwaizumi’s shirt?” Suga asks from behind Daichi’s shoulder, raising his eyebrows at the matching green plaid shirt over Oikawa’s track pants. 

“Stay on subject,” Iwaizumi growls, shooting a glower at Oikawa who shrugs. “Daichi what is this?”

“I honestly don’t know. There have been sightings like this before but I didn’t actually believe them. I mean, maybe a little but not  _ really _ . That’s crazy, right?  _ This _ is crazy.”

“Babe,” Suga says behind him, reaching out to put a hand on his arm. “You’re rambling. Let’s just calm down for a second.”

“Yo, is it breakfast time?” Bokuto fumbles with the zipper on the last tent, finally pulling it open to let him and Kuroo tumble out.

“The rocks!” Daichi calls, but it’s too late, the last of the piles toppling over. “Dammit, you guys!”

“What’s the deal? They’re just rocks. We’re surrounded by them,” Kuroo says, lifting up one of the stones and testing its weight in his palm before looking up. “Woah, nice dolls, dude.”

“They’re not just rocks,” Daichi says, rubbing at his face as Suga tightens his grip on his arm. “They’re cairns.”

“They’re what now?” Bokuto eyes the rocks as if they’re going to come alive.

“Piles of stones used to mark burial grounds. I’ve seen this before. It’s not good.”

“I’m sure it’s okay,” Suga says softly, stepping forward and wrapping his arms around Daichi’s, looking him in the eyes. “It’s probably just someone playing a trick on us.”

“In the middle of nowhere?”

“Didn’t all the locals know we were coming?” Iwaizumi asks, holding his arms close to himself as if he’s afraid to touch anything but doesn’t want to show it. “They probably haze all the witch hunting tourists like this.”

“It took me a week to find the fence we parked at because I couldn’t get any of the locals to come close enough to show me,” Daichi shakes his head, dismissing their speculations. “Plus they’re all like, a million years old. There’s no one else out here.”

“Well our only other option is to believe a witch did this,” Oikawa rolls his eyes, stepping toward a doll hanging in front of his face. “And frankly, I don’t buy it.”

“Don’t-!”

He’s too late, Oikawa reaches out and tugs on one of the dolls. Just as the twine snaps there’s a crash between the trees to their side like the sound of wood splintering, a flock of crows taking flight and breaking through the canopy of trees. 

“Alright, I’m out of here,” Iwaizumi says. “Fuck this, fuck the witch, fuck your film final. I’m out.”

Daichi can feel his heartbeat in his throat, and Suga’s matches his pace against his side. Oikawa looks dumbstruck, dropping the doll like it burned him, and Kuroo and Bokuto are already pulling on their boots and backpacks. 

“H-hold on guys,” Suga stutters, clutching one hand to his chest. “Let’s be rational.”

“There’s nothing rational about magic dolls and...whatever Daichi called those rock things!” Iwaizumi yells, throwing on a shirt and not bothering to put on jeans. 

“Cairns,” Daichi whispers, unable to think straight. Nothing makes sense, and he can’t force his brain to process any of it. 

“Whatever! It’s not important. We’re leaving now.”

“At least let us go together,” Suga says, the voice of reason among the chaos. “The last thing we need is to get separated.”

“Yeah, just hurry up.”

Suga tugs on Daichi’s arm to get him moving again, and everyone starts to throw on clothes and take down their tents, the work taking a fraction of the time setting up camp did. 

As he pulls his boots on and stands to grab his pack Suga hands Daichi his camera with a worried smile. “You should get this.”

“Oh, yeah,” Daichi mutters, taking the camera in his shaky hands and turning it on. He almost forgot about the project all together. He catches a few good shots as they all hurry away from the camp, moving quickly back the way they came. 

The hike this time is noticeably free of playful banter, tensions high and nerves shot. It isn’t until they come across a section of river they haven’t seen that someone speaks up.

“Daichi, are we going the right way?” Kuroo asks, looking up with a concerned expression, exhaustion showing in his eyes. 

“We were following the trail back in the direction we came from,” Daichi answers, looking around confused. We should be about halfway back to the cars.”

“Why don’t we check the map,” Suga suggests, voice even.

“Yeah, sorry I forgot to get it out. I wasn’t thinking.” Daichi opens his pack, rifling through a few things before his heart starts to hammer. “Shit, did someone take my map?”

“Why would we take the map?” Oikawa sneers. “No one knows how to read it but you anyway.”

“I mean did you grab it by accident or something? Or did anyone else pack the copies I gave them?” Daichi’s voice is frantic as he searches the same spots over and over. 

Everyone slips their backpacks to the ground, checking through their supplies and coming up empty handed.

“Great, now we’re lost,” he mumbles, running both hands through his hair and tugging at the ends. He turns and kicks a stone into the water. “Dammit!”

“Calm down, it’s alright,” Suga says, grabbing his hands and talking in his soothing voice. “Let’s just sit and have breakfast and come up with a plan from there, okay? Are you guys starving? I’m starving.”

They all nod with varying degrees of fear and anger, or somewhere in between. After a breakfast of dried fruits and granola bars they all decide to head back the way they came, hoping to follow the trail back to camp and the trail that should lead them out. 

It isn’t until a few hours pass with no sign of their camp that they realize they’re going in circles, coming back upon the bank of the river where they ate breakfast. They try again, and again they end up at the river. 

“This is bullshit,” Iwaizumi spits, pacing and tugging at his hair. 

“I...I don’t know what’s happening,” Daichi whispers, dropping to the ground and sticking his head between his knees. He’s so tired, so stressed, and he has no idea how he’s going to get everyone out of this situation he dragged them into. 

“Let’s just...rest for a while,” Suga says, kneeling beside Daichi and wrapping his arms around his shoulders. “We’ll camp here and get a fresh start in the morning. If we can’t find our way tomorrow someone will come looking for us. People know we’re out here, and they know when we said we’d be back. We have enough supplies to last until then.”

“I don’t want to wait for someone to come find us,” Oikawa huffs, voice high pitched and tired. “I want to go  _ home _ .”

“We all do,” Suga replies, and Daichi wonders what he would do without him. 

“Wait, what’s that,” Iwaizumi asks, and Daichi follows his finger pointing towards Kuroo’s backpack.

“What’s what?” Kuroo asks, nervously, trying to sidestep in front of the bag. He’s not fast enough, Iwaizumi grabbing it in a flash and pulling it open. 

“This!” He pulls out a bundle of twine and scissors, holding it out in his palm like an explosive. “There was a piece sticking out of the zipper. Do you think this is funny?”

“Dude, hold on, I think you’ve got the wrong idea,” Kuroo says, holding his hands up and backing away. “Daichi, come one, man, tell him to calm down.”

“What’s the twine for?” Daichi asks, shrugging off Suga’s arms and standing. 

“Guys, don’t do this. Babe,” Suga calls, hopping up and following Daichi as he walks towards Kuroo. 

“What was it for?” Daichi repeats, seeing red in the corner of his vision. 

“I brought it because...it just looked like camping supply stuff, I don’t know man. C’mon, you’ve gotta believe me,” he pleads.

“Bo has some too,” Oikawa says, cutting into the confrontation. They all turn to see him holding Bokuto’s backpack, an identical ball of twine in his hands.

“Hey!” Bokuto calls, suddenly nervous. “Why are you searching my stuff?”

“Because you idiots do everything together. Even  _ this _ , apparently.” Oikawa throws the bag to the ground, venom in his voice. 

“I’m sure there’s an explanation,” Suga says, still struggling to keep the peace, but the peace is long gone.

“Get out, both of you,” Daichi hisses.

“What? Dude, you can’t be serious,” Kuroo pleads, one foot landing in the water as he continues to back up.

“Go where? We’re  _ lost _ ,” Bokuto adds, eyes darting between Kuroo and Daichi, terrified.

“We’re lost because of your stupid fucking prank,” Iwaizumi spits, eyes burning like embers.

“Everyone calm down, let’s talk this through,” Suga continues, tears welling on his lashes.

“Leave!” Daichi yells, voice echoing through the clearing, and everyone freezes. “Now!”

“Just...just c’mon, dude,” Bokuto mutters, voice weak as he beckons to Kuroo. “Let’s go.”

Kuroo and Bokuto scramble to grab their bags, setting back on the path that led them in circles without another word. Daichi doesn’t breathe again until their shapes disappear between the trees, finally deflating. 

“We shouldn’t be splitting up. It’s dangerous,” Suga says, voice level. “We could’ve talked about it.”

“Not now,” is all Daichi says, refusing to look Suga in the eyes so he can’t see the hurt sitting there. 

He ignores him and starts pulling the crumpled tent pieces out of the bag he shoved them into that morning, busying himself with setting up camp and letting the tension and anger fade from his system. Iwaizumi and Oikawa do the same, the camp almost eerily quiet, the only sound being the clink of poles and fingers swiping over vinyl tent walls. 

They eat dinner in silence as well, the air thick as they swallow down their cans of baked beans with the sun setting slowly and casting them in darkness. The campfire doesn’t seem to hold it back as well as the night before, their circle of light seeming smaller and less protective. 

Suga sleeps in his own sleeping bag that night, pushed up against the side of the tent as if trying to stay as far away from Daichi as he can. It’s cold without him, and Daichi had grown so used to Suga’s head on his chest while he slept, but he knows he deserves it. 

Despite the exhaustion in his bones and tired fog in his brain, Daichi can’t sleep, his mind running wild with thoughts of witches and murderers and friends wandering the wilderness alone. He had almost believed the dolls and cairns were real, but he should’ve know they were a trick. The worst part was that despite being afraid he had been sort of  _ excited _ . He hadn’t expected anything to come of his project but then there it was, real concrete evidence, set perfectly for him to document. Too perfectly, and definitely unbelievable. Using the word unreal would be too literal. 

Daichi isn’t sure when he dozes off, but he wakes with a start in a cold sweat after what feels like seconds. He’d dreamt of the house, the one the other people had allegedly went missing in, where the supposed murderer had lived. He remembers the stories the locals had told, about how the murderer would make his victims stand with their noses in the corner as he picked them off one by one. In his dream he had walked into the house alone, wandering until he made it to the basement, finding Suga with his back to him, face in the corner. Daichi had woken just as his dream self had reached out to touch Suga’s shoulder. 

He bolts upright, panting. Suga doesn’t move from his spot in the corner, still fast asleep, but suddenly the air in the tent is too thick to enter his lungs, and Daichi scrambles out of the tent.

The campfire has died down to weak embers, only visible in the lack of moonlight. Daichi digs a flashlight out of the one the packs, fumbling in the dark until the light flashes on, making him squint. There’s no dolls or cairns this time, and he lets out a breath of relief, heart still hammering from his dream. Everything seems to be just as they left it, but something catches his eye.

The door of Oikawa and Iwaizumi’s tent is open, and Daichi feels his heart leap into his throat. He inches towards it, peeking his head in and only finding one sleeping lump, the other sleeping bag completely empty. 

“Oikawa,” He blurts out, stepping into the tent and shaking his friend awake. “Dude, wake up, where’s Iwaizumi?”

“Hmm,” Oikawa mumble, rolling over and shoving his face deeper into the sleeping bag. “He’s...out.”

“Out where?” Daichi asks, shaking him again. 

Oikawa huffs, throwing off his covers and sitting up, rubbing at his eyes. “I don’t know...he said he had to pee or something.”

“How long ago?”

“When I looked at my watch it was like 1am,” Oikawa yawns, not seeming to be as worried as Daichi. “He should be back any minute. What time is it?”

Daichi hold the flashlight to the watch on his wrist, his entire body going cold. Oikawa must see the color drain from his face in the limited light, his expression finally turning serious. 

“What? What time is it?” He grabs Daichi’s arm and pulls it towards him, hand stiffening around his wrist. “That can’t be right. It’s dark out. Your watch is broken.”

Daichi look at it again, the arms still pointing at 8am. He shakes his head, trying to come up with a plausible explanation. 

Oikawa starts rummaging through his bag and pull out his cell phone to power it back on. “C’mon, c’mon,” he mutters, waiting for the screen to come back on. “Holy shit. Oh god.”

From his spot in the doorway Daichi can see the numbers on Oikawa’s screen, 8:43am sitting across the face of him and Iwaizumi at Kuroo’s frat party the weekend before. Suga crawls into the tent beside Daichi, scaring him with the sudden movement.

“Is everything okay? I heard shouting.”

“Hajime’s gone. And the sun was supposed to rise  _ three hours ago _ ,” Oikawa says, standing suddenly and grabbing for his boots.

“What?” Suga asks, drawing his brows together in confusion. “What do you mean? Hey! Where are you going?”

Oikawa squeezes out of the tent beside them, setting off straight for the trees. Daichi and Suga scramble behind him, standing as he steps into the trees.

“Oikawa!” Daichi calls, but he doesn’t stop.

“I’m going to find him. Wait here,” He calls behind him, disappearing quickly in the darkness. 

“We can’t let him go alone,” Suga says, turning to Daichi with worry apparent in his eyes. “We have to help.”

“Suga, the sun didn’t rise, there’s something seriously wrong here,” Daichi tells him, grabbing his arm as if it will keep him safe.

“All the more reason to go after them.” Suga kisses Daichi quickly and wriggles out of his group, grabbing his boots and shoving them on. “You don’t have to come, but I’m going.”

“Of course I’m coming with you,” Daichi mutters, putting on his boots and hurrying after Suga, reaching out to take his hand.

They walk for about thirty seconds before something crashes up ahead, the sound identical to the splintering sound from the previous morning when Oikawa broke the doll. 

“Tooru!” Iwaizumi’s voice booms to their side, followed by heavy rustling through the brush.

“This way! C’mon!” Suga says, grabbing Daichi’s hand and pulling him in the direction of the noise. Daichi can’t focus on anything but the ground beneath his feet and Suga’s hand in his, the noises pressing in on them like hands closing around them like a bubble. 

“Iwaizumi!” Suga calls, the sound echoing back like it hit a wall. “Oikawa! Where’d you go?”

“Over here!” Another voice calls from right in front of them, and Daichis stops, pulling Suga back by the hand to keep them from toppling into the others.

“Bokuto?” He asks incredulously, Bokuto and Kuroo stepping out from the trees and into the beam of their flashlight. 

Kuroo raises his hand to his eyes, shielding them from the beam of light and squinting, tracks of tears breaking through the grime on his cheeks. “Oh thank god. Bo, we found them.”

Bokuto falls to his knees, grabbing onto Daichi’s pant legs. “It’s been so long,” Bokuto sobs, his voice hoarse. “We came back so many times but you guys were gone.”

“What? What are you talking about? You only left a few hours ago,” Daichi says, eyes widening at the sunken look of their cheeks and the dirt covering their clothes and faces. Their eyes are full of fear, like an animal being hunted.

“Hours? We’ve been wandering for days,” Kuroo says, shaking his head. “We thought you guys had left without us, but we couldn't be sure because the sun hasn’t risen so we didn’t know where we were.”

“That...that doesn’t make any sense,” Daichi mumbles, taking a step back, his head pounding as hard as his heart.

“It makes about as much sense as the sun not rising by 9am,” Suga says, squeezing his hand. “Daichi, I don’t know what’s going on but it’s not good. We need to stick together and find Iwaizumi and Oikawa.”

“I-,”

“Hajime!” Oikawa voice cuts him off, booming like a megaphone from the direction they had come from.

Without hesitation all four of them take off running, Daichi trying his best to stay close enough to Suga not to lose him, everything moving too fast to comprehend. There’s a snap, and Suga falls in front of him, hitting the ground with a heavy thud.

“Suga!” Daichi drops to his knees beside him, hands hovering over his form and unsure of what to do. 

“I’m fine, I just, ah-,” he winces, pulling one knee up to his chest. “I think I twisted my ankle. I hit a tree root or something.”

Daichi looks up, no sign of Kuroo, Bokuto, or the others anywhere around them. No rustling, no splintering booms, no voices. 

“Don’t worry, I’m going to get us out of here. I got us into this mess, I can fix it,” Daichi says, scooping Suga up bridal style, the adrenaline rush giving him an extra boost of strength. 

“Hey,” Suga whispers, wrapping his arms around Daichi’s neck and pulling his head down to kiss his cheek. “Don't blame yourself. We’re all in this together. And when we make it out you’re going to have the best documentary the world has seen.”

“That doesn’t matter anymore,” Daichi sighs, stepping carefully forward to avoid whatever Suga had tripped on, listening for any sign of noise that will lead him to his friends.

“Of course it does,” Suga replies, reaching into the pocket of his hoodie and pulling out the camera. “Even if we die there’s still going to be a great story.”

“That’s not funny.”

“It wasn’t a joke.”

Daichi sighs, trying to even out his breathing as Suga turns the camera on, surveying the woods around whem with the night vision mode. He points out things in their path as they continue, and Daichi tries his best to focus and not let guilt wash over him. 

The air suddenly turns static, like a thunderstorm is on the horizon, but the sky remains blank and still. The hairs on the back of Daichi’s neck rise, and he can feel eyes on him in all directions. 

“Do you feel tha-,”

“Daichi!” Suga’s voice comes from ahead of them, cheery and bright, followed by laughter and the rustling of trees. 

“What the,” the Suga in his arms whispers. “Daichi, don’t-,”

But it’s too late, he’s already sprinting ahead, charging towards the voice.

“Daichi, it’s a trick!” Suga calls from his arms, tugging on his shirt. “Don’t fall for it!”

Daichi doesn’t hear him, fear gripping his chest like icy fingers beneath his skin. Even with Suga in his arms he can’t stop himself from following the voice. He’d follow that voice anywhere.

They break through the trees into a clearing, and Suga holds the camera up so Daichi can see the little rectangle of green. “Is that…,” his voice wobbles, hands shaking as he holds the camera. “Is that the house?”

Daichi stares at the screen, the outline of a broken down house sitting clearly in the center. He can no longer feel his body, going numb as if he floated up and out of his form. “Y-yeah. That’s it.”

There’s a flash of movement in one of the windows, and Daichi takes off again, walking purposefully towards the house. 

“Daichi...babe, what are you doing,” Suga asks, looking at with a worried expression. “You’re not going in there, are you?”

“Of course I am. Our friends might be in there, and they’re out here because of me, so I have to get them out.”

“I told you, no one blames you, don’t be rash,” Suga pleads, stiffening in Daichi’s arms. 

“ _ I _ blame me, Suga!” He yells, louder than he meant to. “I did this, I’m fixing it. You don’t have to come, you can wait out here.”

“No way. Where you go, I go, remember?”

He’d never been so thankful  and terrified to hear those words, but he’s thankful all the same. He couldn’t ask for better friends, or a better boyfriend, than the ones he has, and if he gets them out he’s never going to let them forget how special they are to him.

There’s no door on the house, just a gaping hole where a door should be, and rusted hinges hanging from the frame. Daichi doesn’t give himself time to be afraid, walking straight in without hesitation. The hallways are narrow, and he has to turn sideways to keep from bouncing Suga’s head against the walls. They reach the foot of the stairs, half leading up to the second story and half leading to the basement. 

“Well, up or down?” Daichi asks, voice feeble.

Suga turns the camera in both direction, finding a barricade of rotting boards waiting for them at the top of the stairs. “Down, I guess,” he mutters, his heart beating so fast Daichi can hear it in the stagnant air. 

With a nod he takes to the stairs, stepping down carefully as they creak and whine under Daichi’s weight. The trip down is short, his feet hitting dirt as they step into the basement. Daichi can’t see a thing, the darkness thicker than any he’d seen yet, but Suga sucks in a gasp of air. 

“What?” He whispers, but Suga doesn’t speak, just holds up the camera for him to see. 

In the tiny rectangle Daichi can see a shape, the hair unmistakable even from behind. Kuroo stands in one corner, completely still with his nose pressed to the wall. Daichi can’t breathe, his throat constricting. He spins slowly, watching the window reveal Bokuto, Oikawa, and Iwaizumi all standing in separate corners of the windowless room. 

“This isn’t happening,” he chokes, silent tears falling down his cheeks. “This  _ can’t _ be happening.”

He steps forward, one hand outstretched as he approaches Iwaizumi, pausing with his fingers millimeters away from his shoulder.

Suga squeezes his neck, pulling closer as if it’ll keep them both safer, and as Daichi’s fingertips brush Iwaizumi’s shirt he feels Suga’s breath in his ear.

“Boo!”

He jumps so hard he drops Suga hard on the ground, but he doesn’t have time to apologize, or even register what the hell just happened, before four lights flick on around him, his friends bursting into laughter with flashlights in their hands. 

“Surprise!” Suga calls, letting Kuroo pull him to his feet and leaning against his shoulder. “You caught the Blair Witch!”

“What the...what the  _ fuck _ are you talking about?” The words have no venom to them, Daichi’s mind still scrambling to make sense of whatever is happening. 

“We staged it, all of it,” Bokuto says excitedly, reaching out to pull Daichi up.

“We’d better all get Oscars for this,” Oikawa smirks, running a hand through his hair. “I gave the performance of my life.”

“I told them not to do it,” Iwaizumi sighs, tapping his flashlight in top of Oikawa’s head. “Thought it was just a tad too mean.”

“A tad,” Daichi breathes, not knowing how to respond. “Unbelievable. How?”

“Bo and I really did hand up the dolls and make the rock things, and Iwaizumi pretended to catch us,” Kuroo says. “And we all led the group in a circle on purpose. That tree falling down sound effect when Oikawa broke the string was from his phone, the birds were an added surprise, though.”

“And I set your watch back, and Oikawa changed the timezone on his phone to trick you about the sun not rising thing. It’s like, 4am right now,” Suga adds, shrugging sheepishly though Daichi can tell he’s proud of how well they pulled everything off. 

“I was helping Kuroo and Bokuto look like they’d been lost for days in the woods while you guys were looking for me, and we were all causing the rustling noises and the trees falling,” Iwaizumi says, crossing his arms over his chest.

“And we recorded Suga calling out to you and laughing in the motel while you were packing up the cars,” Oikawa tell him, lifting up his phone and playing the noise again.

“How’d you know this house was out here?” Daichi asks, head starting to clear and heart camling its pace as he realizes his friends aren't actually going to die after all.  

“Kuroo and I scouted the place out a few weeks ago,” Bokuto answers, pulling a folded square of paper out of his pocket. “We made a pretty good map and found this. I don’t know if it’s the murder house or anything, but it worked.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Daichi starts, rubbing at his eyes, “none of this was real, and we’re not going to die?”

“Right! But you’re going to have a hell of a film final,” Suga winks, limping over to Daichi to plant a kiss on his cheek.

“And your ankle?”

“Oh no, I really twisted it pretty good. That wasn’t according to plan. I was supposed to jump out of a corner or something, but this worked fine.”

Daichi is silent for a moment, everyone looking at him expectantly as if they’re expecting him to laugh or scream or both. He does neither, deflating against Suga and dropping his head onto his shoulder, careful not to put enough pressure to hurt him.

“So you guys know the way back to the cars, then?” He asks, feeling Suga laugh beneath him.

“Yup, don’t worry babe, we’re done torturing you,” he threads their fingers together, turning back to the group. “Shall we go, then? This place is starting to give me the creeps.”

By the time they make it back outside the house the sun is starting to rise, and Daichi doesn’t think he’s ever been so grateful to see sunlight. They slowly make their way back to camp, going slow enough to help Suga hobble his way around. The playful banter returns, and despite everything he’d felt over the past two days Daichi is happy. This trip wasn’t what he expected, and it definitely wasn’t completely enjoyable, but he’s glad to have shared it with these people, with Suga. He knows he’ll be able to look back on it someday, with Suga by his side, and laugh. 

And, with the power of editing, he’ll graduate with a pretty good grade in film class. 


End file.
